I will say though, that in the past twenty years I have seen remarkable acknowledgment and recognition of women in the companies I have worked for. I find women department heads, directors, vice-presidents, and board members. This is something I just didn’t see three decades ago.

Problem solved. By no means. But with this I have seen a change in men too. A while back the advances of women in the work place was greeted with snickers and whispers. No more. Eyebrows are no longer raised. It is simply accepted by men — at least in my profession — now.

Significant steps. Yep. Many more steps needed. Yep.

I get a kick out of the numbers published by colleges and universities around graduation time in recent years. I believe I read that more women received undergraduate degrees than men last year. We still are paid less, but maybe our well-educated daughters are getting their political consciousnesses raised in these turbulent days; in about ten years, when the economy is growing again, when some of the issues currently on the table are hammered out, and when our daughters hit their Power Forties, watch for big changes in gender-based wage differentials. I wonder how gender hiring will play out as the first new jobs appear. We’re set to benefit when real recovery ensues.

Meanwhile, keep the righteous anger burning; we’ll be teaching and mentoring those young women to pick up where we left off.