“People think it’s solved, that women have fixed this stuff,” Strachan said. “We have a generation who think they don’t have to be feminists anymore. If we keep following gender expectations, it is going to affect the workplace.”

Women receiving the same education as men are questioning why there is still a pay gap, Strachan said.

Andrew Blom, assistant philosophy professor, teaches students about gender roles and expectations, and said there are several aspects of discrimination between genders in the workplace.

“The discrimination that affects women’s pay and opportunities for advancement can be related to explicit sexism such as, ‘Do we really want to promote her if she’s probably going to get sidetracked by pregnancy?’" Blom said. "But very often it reflects unconscious and unexamined differences in the way women’s and men’s achievements are evaluated."

Blom said this includes everything from the influence of background assumptions about who needs the money more because “he has a family to support,” to double standards in the way people view assertive, vocal and strong behavior as acceptably masculine, but clashing with expectations for what is feminine.

Strachan agreed with Blom and noted research done by Linda Babcock, professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon University and author of “Women Don’t Ask.” Babcock said most women fail to negotiate with employers the same way men do. On a video interview with INSEAD Knowledge, she said there are grave consequences for not “asking” in the workplace, regarding both pay and working upward in a company.

“Men are four times more likely to negotiate their salary,” Babcock said.

Strachan said Babcock found women who used the same negotiating strategy as men when going into an interview received negative reactions from employers.

“While men were seen as energetic and positive, women were seen as overly aggressive,” Strachan said.

Blom also said socialization among genders in the workplace plays a part.

“An even more influential source of disparities has to do with social segregation,” he said. “When men in the workplace spend time socializing in predominantly male groups, this creates a strong social network in which opportunities and social capital are shared within the group. The intent may not to be to exclude women from these opportunities, but that is the net effect.”

'The assumption is ...'

Blom said in the corporate world, individual women have broken the “glass ceiling,” but men continue to occupy the highest positions in an overwhelming proportion. Sexual harassment persists and is most commonly targeted at women, making many workplaces into hostile environments, he said.

Strachan also said there is a perception of the ideal worker and many women do not fall into that category.

“There is this assumption that all the worker has to focus on is their job,” Strachan said. “Who takes care of the kids, house, chores? Women internalize this. Media and pop culture don’t help either because they’re showing women juggling all of these things.”

Strachan noted a female politician who appeared on television giving advice to mothers about how to properly care for their children, sharing “healthy eating” tips.

“Why the heck doesn’t the father take responsibility for feeding the kids? Why is this directed to the mother?” she said.

Strachan said approximately 63 percent of women complete the majority of household chores, regardless of whether or not they have a career.

Blom said despite changing attitudes, gender roles in the family persist, creating pressures and expectations about who will be able to put in extra hours at the office, who can afford to take time off from a career, and how much strain a single parent — most commonly single mothers — will face in this environment to find work that will yield a living wage.

Strachan said this is one big case of benevolent sexism.

“If we never push, we’re perpetuating the way the world is now,” she said.

Strachan said there are other areas of the world experimenting with changing the stereotypical gender dynamics in the workplace.

“In Norway, employers are starting to give men time off, just like a woman would get time off during pregnancy,” Strachan said, “Couples are starting to be more egalitarian, but it’s not across the board.”

She said there are many aspects of our society holding women back, specifically in the political world.

“At Hillary Clinton’s rallies, people were yelling 'iron my shirt!'” Strachan said.

Pushing for change

Blom said continuing to fight for changes is imperative.

“For example, in the way the public ... rates the social and economic value of parenting, in our consciousness of how our social networks regulate access to opportunity, and in how serious and proactive we are in transforming the culture that enables sexual harassment,” Blom said.

Women have broken into many professions that were once reserved for men and are challenging gender expectations about roles in the family that have tended to deprive women of economic independence, he said. Despite these advances, Blom said discrimination persists.

“Much of this is buried — justified as natural,” Strachan said. “I don’t think it’s gone the way people believe it’s gone.”

Livonia freshman Emily Whittico said that although women are still making less than men, women will "catch up and surpass" them in the next 20 years. Women have equal opportunities as men and it is up to women, no one else, to strive for equal pay, she said.

"I dont think it's gender that determines your pay but the quality of work ... which is why women are catching up fast," she said. "I think ... we are respected in the work force."

She said men can throw an attitude, but that is most likely caused by nervousness and intimidation because of the stereotype that they need to stay "masculine and macho."

Whittico said she grew up in a family where her mother was the head of the household; not just because she made more money, but because she had a distinct leadership style and attitude that gave her the ability to balance many of the household responsibilities.

"My father is perfectly OK with this because he knows she'll do it better, and I respect him so much for that," she said. "I think men dominating women in the workforce is only a statistic, and it's a statistic that will decrease rapidly in the near future"