By Juliana McLeod, News correspondent

“Women in the United States today are paid on average 77 cents for every dollar paid to men.” This statement must be taken from a study in the 1970’s, right?

Wrong.  The ever-lingering wage gap is still here in 2013, according to a survey completed by the U.S. Census Bureau.

It is a statement that every American has heard for the past few decades: the endless fight for income equality between men and women. It is the struggle that has plagued feminist groups for decades and made women question if the statistics have seen any improvement. A struggle that continues to this day – exactly 50 years after former President John F. Kennedy initiated the Equal Pay Act.

However, this new data is not the root cause of the rejuvenated American obsession with the gender gap. We can find the beginnings of this renewed concern three years ago.

In 2010, Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, gave a TED Talk on the struggles of women in the workforce. She spoke of the time she was on a business trip and asked a male coworker where the bathroom was. His response was that he was unsure if there even was a bathroom for women in the office.

When Sandberg was on that stage, clarifying the continuing difficulties for women, the obsession with working women began to grow. Women were starting to think of all the ways they had not succeeded, which turned into the ultimate question, “why are women holding themselves back from being as successful as men?”

According to the Center for American Progress, a working mother earns seven percent less than a childless working female for every child she has. I will not justify this by claiming that women are holding back in their professional lives in order to take care of their children. Perhaps this is the case, but men clearly are not following this trend. Does that make them bad fathers? No. Rather, it makes them more persistent when pushing for success in their jobs.

What if the main problem for women is not that they are bound with domestic responsibilities, but that they are using these responsibilities as an excuse?

Women have to push themselves forward just as men do. The catch is that women cannot push in the same way as their male counterparts.

Christine Quinn, speaker of the New York City Council, was fighting this battle, though not necessarily winning. In an attempt to be New York City’s first female mayor, Quinn was toiling her way through campaigns as if she were a male candidate: focusing not on her gender, but on her accomplishments and determination in winning the voters’ hearts. In a genderless world, this may have brought Quinn success. But the polls showed just the opposite, according to the New York Times article, “In Quinn’s Loss, Questions About Role of Gender and Sexuality.”

In the article, New York City residents describe Quinn as being masculine, bossy and in need of a better wardrobe. That is where I had to pause in the article. When have male politicians ever been criticized for their clothing? Yet it is a hazard female politicians must be aware of.

I was originally frustrated that female leaders could have wardrobe malfunctions, while male leaders could not. I believed that if men did not have to endure it, women did not have to either. But females cannot go through their professional careers insisting on being treated like men. To do so would defeat the purpose of equality.

In order to be successful in the workforce, women should not have to pretend to be a gender they’re not. Men have been successful in the workforce by being themselves. Now, women must take the chance at being themselves as well.

Perhaps this rediscovered fascination with women consistently falling behind will push this next generation of female workers to alter the status quo. It is true that women will have to worry about their jobs, their personal life and their wardrobes, but at least they can keep wearing cute high heels while doing so.

-Juliana McLeod can be reached at [email protected].