There is an old expression that goes, "We may have won the battle, but we haven't won the war." Women in business need to realize that although we have made many strides over the past 50 years toward full equality, we have a long road ahead. Young women, particularly, must prepare themselves as they will be blind-sided by our societal injustices. 

I know that as I write this blog some of you are reading it and the hairs on the back of your neck are sticking up and you want to cry out and tell me to stop the insanity, "this talk just holds women back further as it is all about the best person for the job." "Really?" I say. "Do you really believe that women in America have reached full equality?"

Unless you have been living under a rock you know about Patricia Arquette's passionate speech at this year's Oscars. She said in her acceptance speech as Best Supporting Actress for Boyhood, "It's our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for women. The truth is, the older women get, the less money they make. It is time for us. Equal means equal."

It makes you wonder why a woman who clearly makes millions feels she needs to take a stand for inequality for women. Perhaps, it is because regardless of what you make it MATTERS that you know that you are not being treated equally with your peers. Well, let me share some stories with you about some clients I work with and see if you still believe things don't need to change.

First, I know a woman in business in an exceptional tech company that pays for her to get her MBA. Her manager, however, has told her, "Don't think just because you get your MBA that I will be promoting you. If you want to advance go somewhere else." How interesting for this woman in business that her company decides to pay for her advanced education, but her manager has no intention of promoting her. What does that mean for this top Fortune 1000 company? A big expense for no return! She will be scooped up by another company who will, hopefully, appreciate her first for her great skills and talents and then second for the exceptional education she has been paid to acquire. She will most surely advance up the ladder. Right?

Second, I have recently worked with a woman who has been passed over three times now for a position in the C suite, each time for a male. Her credentials have been equal or better than the male hired for the position. So, why has this very talented, high-powered woman been passed over? In my opinion, it is because she is in her early forties and married a few years ago. It is assume that because her biological clock is ticking she has other things on her mind other than the job. Of course, the men that have surpassed her and are also in the early forties are no different accept that they personally cannot give birth should this be their desire. They have married and made it clear to the 'powers that be' that they are in building family mode and are ready for the biggest challenges of their lives. Do you, the readers of this blog, see anything wrong with the assumptions, or perceptions, that are being made about a woman in her forties ready to take on the world?

The fact is, according to Investor's Business Daily (March 16, 2015), "fewer than 5% of S&P 500  workforce company CEOs are women, even though women constitute nearly half of the companies workforce." The new report from the Clinton Foundation, No Ceilings, states that the United States is one of only nine countries that don't have paid leave for mothers. I have been singing this song for almost a decade and it hasn't changed. I believe that children brought in to the world are part of a family and should be treated as important for the strength of the next generation. Children come from men as much as they do from women. Isn't it time we as a country focus on this important piece of our country's future?

Women have been very successful for fighting for male paternity leave. Is that success due to the fact we live in a male dominated society? As women can we take our eye off the future? Haven't we fought every fight for every minority because we believed in the importance of equality?

The answer is YES, and we can't ever let up on the importance of women's equality. Without women's equality every other fight is only for 50% (or really in America 49%) of the population.

Women in business owe it to themselves and to their sisters, daughters and granddaughters to keep fighting to make sure that they get their equal share.

I have been talking about this for more than 25 years and it saddens me say very little has changed. I want to see a woman president in my lifetime. I want to see more than 5% women CEOs in the list of Fortune 500 companies in America and paid maternity leave as the majority of countries have had for years. I want the best and brightest to get the positions that they deserve because they are the best and with 55% of the U.S. labor force being women it is clear their number is up.

So, as a woman in business let me hear you roar. Don't allow yourself to feel undermined, speak your mind and make sure to follow your dream by making sure those around you know exactly what it is.

This doesn't mean you shouldn't spend time with your family and/or take time off for your children. It means that the choice to thrive should be yours and no one has the right to hold you back because of your gender.

Please keep fighting as the battle for women in the workplace may have been won, but the war is long from over.

(I'd love to hear your thoughts - please email me at vicki@vickidonlan.com)