According to Wikipedia, the gender-equality paradox is the finding that various gender differences in personality and occupational choice are larger in more gender-equal countries.
When looking for more information about this, most of the articles accessible for the general public seem to boil down to "gender stereotypes", "unconscious biases" and "insufficient public policy to address the gap" etc., without providing many details or scientific references.
This rather old short documentary discusses the specific case of Norway, one of the most egalitarian countries in the world. It tries to provide possible explanations for the gender-equality paradox in Norway, and the main causes can be grouped as follows:
- there are virtually only social causes (example at timestamp 8:30)
- biological differences are a very important cause (examples at 14:50 and 19:50). Thus, on average a man's aspirations are different from a woman's, especially when they have maximum freedom.
Some of the scientists in the movie refer to "cutting edge" studies, but those studies are at least 9 years old. I am wondering how much the biological / brain development arguments are still valid from a scientific perspective.