Today is Equal Pay Day, an event put on by the National Committee on Pay Equity to raise awareness of unequal salaries for women and other minorities. And today, almost 90 years since women gained suffrage, there are many speculations about why women earn less money than men: Are they less deserving? Do the majority of women choose lower-paying jobs than men? Or do they just fail to negotiate their salaries with employers, such as sociology professor Jean Giles-Sims suggested?

We could come up with hundreds of explanations, but none of them would be right. The truth is sexism still exists in our society.

According to an article in today’s Skiff, 13 percent of graduating TCU seniors surveyed reported earning annual incomes of $80,000 or more – the highest income category. All of them were men.

Granted, some of the earlier theories explaining this inequity in pay between genders do help to explain the phenomenon.

According to the same article, 60 percent of females surveyed graduated from the AddRan College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the College of Communication and the College of Nursing and Health Services. About the same percentage of males (55 percent) graduated from the School of Business or the College of Science and Engineering.

So, at least at TCU, the numbers back up that theory. But it doesn’t mean sexism has been eradicated from our society. Those numbers bring up another burning question – why don’t more women go into business or engineering?

It could be because of the double-standard placed on women to find jobs that allow for time to cook, clean and take care of a family. Nowadays, a woman is faced with the choice of a demanding, high-profile career or a family while men are free to have both.

Or it could be any of the other endless rationalizations for the imbalance in pay.

Whatever the reason, it’s time to honor all human beings as equal and pay women based on their qualifications not gender.

Features editor Amber Parcher for the editorial board.