A few years back, I was offered £5k less than a female counterpart for a position.

See, it's easy to make a blanket statement without any context. I was hired due to my skills and achievements, but was entering a position without any industry specific knowledge and fewer years experience.

Over time you learn to negotiate harder, sell yourself more, select your strongest points and work damn hard to get what you want instead of being handed something. For most of my adult life, I was turned down for jobs, but I didn't have the option to blame being a woman.