It's still a man's world, according to a study released by the American Association of University Women that examines the careers of men and women who have recently graduated from college and reevaluates these individuals 10 years later.
The AAUW's study examined the salaries of men and women with an undergraduate college education, and found that women make 74 cents for every dollar made by their male counterparts.
The study was released following Tuesday's Equal Pay Day, which, according to the AAUW, marked the day on which the cumulative earnings of women starting in 2006 caught up with the amount of money men earned in 2006 alone.
According to Judy Goldberg Dey, co-author of the study, the research broke down the gender pay gap over a period of time.
"What we were doing was looking at young women and men right out of college and then 10 years after graduation," Golberg Dey said.
According to Goldberg Dey, immediately after college women make 80 percent of what men make, and the gap grows larger as time goes on.
University Politics Prof. Steven Rhoads, whose research focuses on sex differences, said the difference in income can be partially explained by looking at the kinds of jobs men and women choose to take.
When choosing careers men are more likely to base their decision on future earning potential, Rhoads said.
"Men think more about marketability," Rhoads said. "Women are more likely to look for jobs they like."
Rebecca Bronson, co-chair for Public Policy in the Virginia chapter of the AAUW, said the careers women choose may be a reflection of social pressure.
Goldberg Dey noted that there are differences in the types of jobs chosen by each gender. According to her study, 79 percent of education majors are women, contrasting with engineering programs, whose students are 18 percent female.
"We found that controlling for all of the factors, 75 percent of that pay gap could be explained," she said, adding, however, "not all of it could be explained by choices."
The study also controlled for women who took time off from work to have children.
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