Megan McArdle says Government Can’t Fix Real Gender Pay Gap, and she’s right. As usual, her discussion is thoughtful. She acknowledges that “almost all of the gap (in average wages by gender) is driven by choice of occupation, and working hours, with an emphasis on working hours.” Of those decisions and any remainder, she thinks, “you can make a strong case that at least some of these decisions are driven by residual cultural sexism… But I also have to ask: What specific thing are we supposed to enact to fix this?”

There are no good choices, and neither the Paycheck Fairness Act nor Obama’s executive order on equal pay by federal contractors will accomplish much besides grandstanding and encouraging frivolous lawsuits. McArdle concludes: “To the extent that it’s needed, the remaining work to be done on the pay gap has to be done in places where the government, or indeed any explicit policy, has difficulty going: inside families, or the subconscious recesses of our minds.”