Is this what "equality" means now?

And I can promise you, nepotism exists in competitive workplaces.

I know, that's not what I said.

I said in a competitive workplace WHERE there isn't nepotism. I'm aware it exists, but it doesn't exist everywhere. And I'm not talking about politics.

But there are admittedly issues with the way we socialize boys and girls that do discourage girls from enter STEM fields

I would like you to explain what you mean by this further. Because there's also the fact that girls just don't like STEM as much as boys, and maybe that's why there are less. I started high school almost 15 years ago now, and then, to me looking back on it, I didn't see any women being discouraged from STEM at all, I would say girls were probably helped more by teachers in almost all subjects than boys, it seemed some teachers, and adults took a boy asking for clarification or for it to be explained again/in another way as stupid, lazy, not concentrating, and interrupting the class, and a girl asking the same thing to be inquisitive. The girls who were actually interested in STEM subjects, did well, and weren't discouraged, and the ones who didn't seem to enjoy them weren't either. But I'm not sure what you mean by "the way we socialise boys and girls do discourage girls"

I think that is a broad brush stroke and over generalization.

In terms of the wage gap and what I described, the man working far more hours, overtime, which is backed up by the statistics that men work more, and put more effort into their work, while women put their into family/life and are less likely to work long hours, less likely to engage in overtime, less like as well to engage in unpaid work to get the job done. This is been how it has been for a long time, as men have been competing with other men.

With affirmative action now commonplace in many fields where women are underrepresented (although I have yet to see affirmative action for men where they are underrepresented, and I don't see women racing to get equal representation in all the hard jobs that are 99-100% men, construction, and other hard labour jobs) men are now competing for fewer spots, and have to compete against even more competitive men.

The wage gap isn't some radfem idea being talked about on the fringes of feminist culture, even though it gets debunked almost every time it is brought up, it has made it into normal mainstream culture, it is talked about often in mainstream media, without the slightest bit of research. If you went on the street and asked people, normal people who either didn't consider themselves to be feminists or were far from radical, most would say the wage gap exists. And sure, in some way it does, "the total average pay for all men is higher than the total average pay for all women" is a true statement, but that doesn't mean anything, because it doesn't take into consideration anything else except the mean income of people separated by sex. I'm sure you could find other sub groups of people where a wage gap existed. Maybe black people get paid more than mexicans? Who knows.

But this idea that the wage gap exists in a form different to the pure statistical difference between the two sexes mean income, is mainstream, not fringe feminism.

And I've heard no arguments about how men with degrees should not get jobs that require said degrees while women without said degree should. I'm sure there are some rad-fems who think that, but the liberal and social feminists don't engage in that kind of discourse.

It seems like you didn't bother to read my post very carefully, and saw the major terms and ideas and went with it. I very clearly said

"Next they'll be complaining that men who have degrees shouldn't get a job, and they should without degree in that field, because sexism and they were totally disadvantaged by being discouraged from STEM"

The majority of women I would argue think the wage gap exists, and a significant number of men do as well, because of the way it's been reported on. And those people think something should be done about it, when in reality, there doesn't need to be, in fact it seems news is coming out now that the efforts to make women be paid equal have caused an ACTUAL wage gap in some places, except it's men getting the short straw, and when that happens, the same people seem just as happy to brush it aside as "nothing". So it's not inaccurate to apply a broad brush like that.