It's not that we're missing the point - it's just that I don't think her personal situation is a particularly useful example to further wider gender pay/opportunity discussions - but great that it gets us talking about it. JLs pay is insanely high, which raises more fundamental equality issues. It is also likely that it is negotiated by a (male/female?) agent with few benchmarks. It's also made more complex because celebrities (film/music/sports etc.) pay is often linked to their image/personal following/popularity of the sport etc. - though you'd think that would be in her favour.

While I don't doubt there is some truth that men are viewed more positively for driving a harder bargain, I don't think there is a single basic cause that leads to the gender pay gap. I was listening to a BBC documentary that said that motherhood is actually the biggest cause of the gender pay gap for middle/higher income roles in the UK, with studies showing that women that stay in employment earn the same as men. The problem is that these really capable mothers come back into the workforce after having children, but because we have less flexible working conditions and place value on recent work experience above capacity, they loose out on opportunities and have to make compromises.