I am a feminist; and a bad one at that. I thought if I ever associate myself with the current wave of feminism I would have to turn in my baking sheets, diamond earrings and Essie nail polish collection. I was so wrong on so many levels. At 22 years old I realize I can believe I was conditioned to believe and push for the right women everywhere want, need, deserve: equal pay.

So what does it mean to be short changed? If the answer is he is more qualified, more experienced, more confident in taking what he rightfully “deserves” – she rarely believes she “deserves" anything – as a nation we will continue on the same frustrating cycle and can expect to see nothing has changed.

Yes, she may need to work harder to prove her worth in the business that claims to pay all of its employees a fair wage, that claims it doesn’t discriminate based on gender, and that claims it pays dollar to dollar, unlike other companies.

In 2014, women working full-time in the U.S. were paid 79 percent of what men were paid, creating a 21 percent gap, according to American Association of University. When the study was conducted in 2014, women working in New York were paid 87 percent of what their male counterpart was paid. However, in states such as Louisiana and Alabama, women were paid less than 75 percent of what men were paid.

But if the crusade that emerges to close the wage gap does not publically announce which companies have a centuries-old glass ceiling installed, and if the crusade fails to mention the lifelong struggles, resentment, and bitterness every woman has felt at least once – of every economic class, race, and ethnicity – within the borders of the United State, including white and black women, who are often fighting against one another, the closed gender gap will not mean the death of gender inequality in America.

Unavoidably a new system of social control will develop – one that even the brightest cannot see, just as the current gender inequality situation was not discussed twenty plus years ago. No task is more important for women’s rights activists today than guaranteeing that America’s glass ceiling is shattered and scattered among the history books.