(cross-posted from my Medium.com page)

Several weeks ago Robin Wright — once famous for surviving the mythical ROUS and breaking Forest Gump’s heart — was highlighted for her successful push to be paid the same amount of money per episode as her co-star in House of Cards, Kevin Spacey. The many laudatory companion stories followed on “how brave” and “how strong” Ms. Wright was to stand up for pay equity. Some stories recalled the Sony hack of 2014 when the extent of pay inequities amongst major holiday male and female stars was laid bare. But something was curious in all the coverage: that it was news at all.

In the US we talk often of the progress made to eliminate discrimination and bias. Enfranchisement of women and African-Americans was realized in the 20th century; we’ve spent the past fifty years moving from Jim Crow laws to the first African-American president and the first women as a major party candidate for the presidency. From the military to science to business, we can cite examples where women and minorities have ascended to the top of those professions. We talk about female entrepreneurs, female billionaires. But that’s the point — it’s just examples and not representative of the whole. We still live in a world where there are fewer women in leadership or “top billing” roles making less money.

When it comes to gender equality, a problem acutely felt in the tech industry, there are sobering statistics:

• Just 22 of the Fortune 500 CEOs are women.
• 7% of partners at VC firms are women.
• Just 20% of university engineering students are women.
• Women in tech earn on average 28.3% less than their male counterparts.

To borrow a sports metaphor, we’re celebrating at at the end of the first quarter — there’s a lot of game left to play.

When I was in college, there was considerable talk about how there were almost no African-American quarterbacks in the NFL. But then, there were very few African-American quarterbacks in colleges (my own university was one of the rare exceptions). Connecting the dots, one would find that there were fewer African-American boys playing the position in high schools. In twenty years, racial balance at the quarterback position in high schools ultimately brought (some) more balance to the NFL.

When the tech industry laments the lack of female engineers, of female leaders, I’m reminded of that history. If girls grow up thinking things like video games, Lego Mindstorms are “for boys” they miss out on one of the most important gateways to a technology career (that’s a common refrain even today — a generation of engineers grew up honing their skills for Minecraft). If they miss that opportunity, fewer and fewer young women focus on engineering in high school; fewer still in college; even less after graduation. The roots of our problem as an industry are deep into our elementary schools and toy stores.

And that’s ultimately where we fix it. Yes, we absolutely still have a duty to help women who have graduated enter and advance in technology careers. But we get to real equality when our daughters play-act at being gamers, at creating the next great app, the next deep space probe just like our sons. And when they realize those dreams, their paycheck is the same as anyone else — male or female.

Coming back to Robin Wright… We’ll know this problem is fixed when a women receiving top billing and making the same salary as her male counterpart isn’t news; it’s just the way it is.