Read the transcript from a chat with astronaut Shannon Lucid. Two studies released in June by the Clinton administration pegged women's current average earning power at 76 cents to every male dollar.
Women still make less than men when comparing their wages to a man's dollar.
But it wasn't a smooth ride. Thanks to generations of pioneers before them, millions of women now enjoy professional rank and respect that would have seemed impossible only a few decades ago. But it is a qualified success story. Women's wages still lag behind men's, child-bearing decisions still profoundly affect women's career path, and the glass ceiling, while cracked in places, remains firmly in place. Thirty-five years after President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act, women are still paid less than men for the same work.