One day, fellow students, you will be the boss.

For some it will be within this year, for others it will be around the time the Cubs win the World Series. Regardless of when it happens, it is very likely that at some point, you will be in a position to hire men and women to work under you.

As it is right now, women are being hired in record numbers, but they are not being paid equal amounts of money for equal amount of work.

One of the most disturbing aspects of our culture is our inability to take gender out of the equation. It is sickening that despite all of the rhetoric concerning human rights and equal pay for men and women, we still have not grown out of simple gender bias.

As it is right now, on the average, for every dollar men make, women make 76 cents. This is not right.

In 1979, women reportedly made 63 cents to the dollar of every man. That means after 20 years women have only earned 13 percent more of our respect. This is ridiculous. Following this trend, in 20 years, women will still only be 90 percent equal to men.

If we as a society think this is fair, maybe we should extend this philosophy to all aspects of life.

Women should only pay 76 percent the tuition of men, 76 percent the costs of books and 76 percent the cost of season football tickets.

In addition, women should only be graded on 76 percent of their work and should only attend classes 76 percent of the time.

Obviously this is ludicrous.

It's time we, as future leaders, take responsibility for this inadequacy. We condemn the Taliban for its treatment of women, yet we refuse to acknowledge 24 percent of an American's women's worth.

We need to get over our fear of women in the workplace. Women can do the work, they are as valuable as men are and they deserve the same pay and respect as their male counterparts.

Editorial Board: John Wakefield, Heather Mangold, Melissa Davis, Laura Pelner and Dave Stephens.