But is equality a secondary consideration in a country in crisis? Should we care about pay disparity when many are not getting paid at all? Does women's equality matter right now?
You bet it does. When women are shortchanged at work, children often pay the price. More than 70 percent of mothers are in the workforce, and many are their families' sole supporters. The wage gap costs the average working woman $700,000 to $2 million over her lifetime.
Meanwhile, almost nowhere do women lead in numbers approaching their proportion of the population. Powerful women are not as ubiquitous as they seem.
Despite the influence of former Gov. Sarah Palin, only six states have female governors. Despite the power of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Congress is only 17 percent female. Although three women are on the U.S. Supreme Court, only a sixth of equity partners at American law firms are women. And despite Amy Gutmann's prominence as president of the University of Pennsylvania, fewer than one in four major universities are headed by women.
Some have argued that women lag on such measures because many of them "choose" to leave the workforce to tend to their families. But most leave because they have to. They have limited options when it comes to child care. And, unlike most men, they have to choose between family and career.
The truth is that we can resolve the issues that keep women in second place by aggressively working to change public policies and workplace cultures. One financial-services firm, for instance, revised its protocols so that advancement opportunities would arise earlier in its employees' careers. As a result, women associates were able to establish their credentials sooner, making it easier for them to stay with and return to the firm.
