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I’m not trying to be a downer, but trying to pretend that we’re all good now just means we’re ignoring the discrimination that still happens—something we can’t afford to do.

So now that we’re all up to speed, here are some common barriers that keep women in lower job ranks:

SEX DISCRIMINATION

It’s illegal to discriminate against someone because of their sex (or race, color, national organization, or religion, for that matter), but it still happens all the time. The Federal Glass Ceiling Commission found that one of the reasons for discrimination is a “difference” barrier that “manifests through conscious and unconscious stereotyping and bias.”6 So basically, the people who do the hiring like hiring people who look like them. And if it’s a white guy doing the hiring . . . well, you see where I’m going. Sex discrimination also relates to pay, promotions, and general treatment at work. One of the biggest sex discrimination cases to date is a class action suit against Wal-Mart. The corporate giant has been accused of systematically denying women promotions and paying them less. In fact, women make up more than 70 percent of the company’s hourly workforce but less than a third of its management.7

SEXUAL HARASSMENT

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission defines sexual harassment as “unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature” that affects a person’s ability to do his or her job or creates “an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.”8 So ass-grabbing is definitely out. I joke, but this is serious stuff. Work can be torture for women who are being sexually harassed. And for women who need their jobs to survive (which is most of us), this is an awful situation. Just a couple of examples: A woman in California was spanked—yes, spanked—in front of coworkers. 9 And an August 2006 report even showed that a large number of women who try to join the military are abused and harassed by their recruiters.10 Sweet, huh?

WORK/LIFE BALANCE

Plenty of people will become parents while they’re working—but it’s women who take the brunt of discrimination against parents and soon-to-be-parents. Though it’s illegal, employers will routinely not hire young women they think might get pregnant in the near future. Bad for business, you know, ’cause you’ll have to take time off to give birth and such. Beyond that, parenting can take a real toll on a career. Statistics show that mothers earn less and less with each child they have. Welcome to the Mommy Wage Gap. For the first kid a woman has, the wage difference between her salary and a non-mommy’s is 2 to 10 percent less. For the second kid, the gap grows to 4 to 16 percent less. And the reasons why moms get paid less aren’t what you think. A Cornell University study showed that with equal resumes, job experience, and education, not only were women with children 44 percent less likely to be hired than women without children, but when they were offered a position, their starting annual salary was $11,000 lower on average.11 So as Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, coauthor of The Motherhood Manifesto, said in an interview with Feministing, “This is an actual bias up front against mothers—not because of something moms are doing wrong, but because with equal circumstances, the bias is there.”12 The Mommy Wage Gap isn’t there because moms take more time off, or because they don’t work as hard. You do the math.

Men outnumber women six to one in top corporate jobs.

MEDIA LIES: OPT OUT, MY ASS

While the media madness surrounding women and work isn’t something that directly affects women’s day-to-day work lives, it’s something I have to mention because it affects how we all see work and women’s roles.

The “women’s choices” line of reasoning has been around for a while, but it’s made a hardcore comeback in the media these last few years. The worst one I’ve heard yet? Lisa Belkin, a writer for The New York Times, wrote an article on women “opting out” of work in