The U.S. may have gotten a bad rep for underpaying women, but this shows one positive salary statistic. Though there is more to be done, women's salaries have increased in absolute terms over the last 40 years.

This is indeed a reassuring statistic that progress in the way of gender equality is being made. In the grand scheme of modern history, women have only just recently begun to breach the higher echelons of government and business. This will hopefully provide more top-down support for gender equal policies into the future.