The Myth of the Glass Ceiling

For years I heard that women are paid only a fraction of what men are paid. Something about that never sounded right to me. We have laws against gender discrimination, and there does not seem to be any sign of lax enforcement. I have never heard of men and women getting paid differently for the same job and I have never heard complaints about pay disparity based on gender. Just the same it seems that there are an awful lot of poor women, and many of the low paying jobs I see are held by women.

So what is going on? Do women get paid less than men? If so, why?