“In 2009, female earnings edged forward a little, but did not catch up with the loss during the 2008 market upheaval. 

Between 1980 and 1994 the earning gap between males and females narrowed by close to 12 percent. This surge slowed down after 1994 to a little more than a 5 percent increase until 2009, the most recent statistics available. 

“ Since 1980 real wages for men have remained virtually unchanged, while women’s real earnings have increased across the same time period,” according to a 2009 study released in March 2010 by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.”