AAUW Dialog

I am not so far removed from college that I don’t have strong, visceral memories associated with autumn.  At my alma mater, the University of Rochester, autumn meant a crisp bite to the air and changing leaves; it meant new classes and anticipation of new experiences, both educational and extracurricular.  Autumn felt like opportunity and never more so than in my final year, as my classmates and I looked forward to a last year of education before the challenges and prospects of the “real world.”

The real world, however, throws a nasty curveball at college women: gender-based pay discrimination.  I wonder how many of my female classmates knew and worried about the wage gap; how many of those who had experienced real equality during their educations felt as though they would lose it at graduation.  After all, evidence shows that just one year out of college, women working full time make only 80% as much as their male colleagues.  Ten years after graduation, women fall further behind, making only 69% of the male colleagues’ salaries.

My female friends in school had worked just as hard as I, had earned excellent grades and exciting internships and were more than qualified to begin the careers they’d sought since youth.  Why then, were they at this disadvantage?  Why were they making less immediately out of school?  Why is real, competitive opportunity denied to so many?  Not, as the absurd arguments of some critics would suggest, because they chose to be paid less or they chose to underutilize their hard-earned degrees.

Women college graduates make less, are less able to have economic independence right out of school, and have to fight harder and sacrifice more than men for the same pay because the wage gap is real.

Now, this autumn feels like opportunity too – an opportunity to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act.  If we want college to provide just as many prospects for women as for men, if we want to fight the wage gap and support women just beginning what they hope is a long and productive career, we must pass the Paycheck Fairness Act and we must pass it now, before this Congress ends and we have to start all over again.

So whether you’ve sent an email, a fax, called, or visited your Senators once, twice, or 50 times, now is the time to do it again.  Visit our Action Network, enter your Zip code, and take action now!