When I first joined steemit a week or so ago my wife was telling me she thought it would be easier for women to make money here than men. After we both explored the site for a few days we realized this isn't the case.
Our originally thoughts were that good looking women would get more attention and a higher amount of upvotes (before we understood that upvotes' value is weighted based on the user doing the up voting and getting the right exposure is key). As I've looked through the more racy content on here I've come to realize that a lot of women who do post bikini or nude pics still don't make much money on their posts.
This led me to the conclusion that most people on steemit, especially ones who hold more influence, are looking for quality of content or something unique and interesting more so than just something pretty to look at. Being attractive certainly doesn't hurt, but it really helps if there's also some story to go along with it especially if it's something from the heart.
I've seen good looking women here that get mere cents in payouts for nude pics on many cases. I guess they're not getting the right exposure (pun intended) due to tagging method or because of the huge influx of newbies like me this month or whatever reason. I'm not here just for nudie pics...I'm here because I feel I have a lot of cool pictures, experiences, and insights that I want to share and I love learning. But back to the original point...
I'm happy to see that on steemit women are rewarded moreso for the quality of the content that they post than the way they look. As I said before, I was wrong in my original speculation (when I had just joined) about women earning more here as many of the top earners are men and it's because they post useful info and interesting experiences. But I've also seen some women knocking it out of the park as far as payouts go so kudos to them too.
I think you're correct in that steemit does promote gender equality in its own way whether it was intended or not. It's a beautiful thing. Thanks for the detailed and insightful post @jerrybanfield!