Humorous fact - for as long as I can remember (I've been studying the issue for 20 years) - women in Academe get higher average starting salaries than men.
Why is the average for men higher, then?
Mostly due to length of service. On average, males remain in-service longer than females (they don't generally take maternity leaves, and don't request reduction in service in order to cope with child care, etc).
If you take a male and female professor with the same length of service, same initial qualifications, and same field of expertise - chances are, the female will be making more. (80 percent of the time)
There's serious female contenders for the White House in 2012. There's a female Secretary of State. There's women serving in the Federal Reserve, and on the Supreme Court. In my opinion, the days of "female" being a disadvantage are long gone.
Women occupy vital and important positions world-wide. They have led in places such as Pakistan, the UK, Germany - just to name a few places.
I'm not advocating a lax view on this issue - but I don't really sympathize with the idea of victimhood.
Finally - if memory serves me correct - a woman is in charge right here.
