“Of the more than 6 million employees in American banking, 61 percent are female. But those women tend to settle at the bottom, failing to move up proportionally. The pattern holds even when comparing male and female MBAs. For the past 25 years—a full generation—women have made up more than 30 percent of newly minted MBAs each year; by 2006, women made up 43 percent of the MBA graduating class, or nearly half. Wouldn’t women make up at least 30 percent of the top?

Alas, that’s not the case. In 2009, according to an analysis by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 45 percent of the women working in banking and finance received entry-level wages below $34,999; only 7 percent earned $100,000 or more. For men, the numbers were reversed: 21 percent earned $34,999 or less, while 31 percent made upwards of $100,000.”