I can't recall a significant career altering instance in which I've been treated unfairly because of my gender. Perhaps it's because I've spent most of my adult life in California, where laws are so strongly weighted toward fair treatment, equality is essentially mandated by law.

I might also be naïve about what my male co-workers earn. However, I'm lucky that I was taught negotiating skills by my aunt when I was fresh out of college and shopping entry level jobs.

Figure out what you think you're going to be paid, or the amount you think you need, she advised. Then, increase it by 25% and make that number your salary requirement. Don't concede more than 10% – offer just 5% when asked to counter.

That's how the men do it, she said, and you should, too.

That advice has served me well and apparently, I'm not the only Gen Xer with a wise, bra burning mom, aunt or older sister who gave similar advice.

Take, for example, a median salary survey by age published last fall by the White House Economic Advisers.  The study sourced current population surveys and included men and women from 25 to 45 years of age who had earned professional degrees. 

The results showed a large wage gap for older Gen Xers, with 45-year-old men earning $125,000 median salaries compared to just $55,000 for women. However, the gap narrowed considerably three years into the generation and stayed fairly constant, at about a $30,000 disparity, for workers aged 42 to 34.

The graphs to the left were taken from the White House Economic Advisers report, "Women's Participation in Education and the Workforce". Click on the graphs to expand.

A couple of factors improved Gen X numbers. The number of women earning undergraduate degrees eclipsed men back in the early 90s, and graduate degrees followed shortly thereafter. The disparity now favors women at the same rate it favored men almost 40 years ago.

And, around 1990, the number of men and women choosing traditionally male-dominated occupations like doctors, lawyers and scientists became equal.

Millennial women have advanced gender equality even further. According to the median pay survey, they appear to have not only abolished the gender pay gap, they've inverted it.

The report rightly points out that as women advance their careers, they lose ground. Regardless of generation, any woman who takes time off to raise children loses crucial earnings, experience and opportunities.

But also consider that according to Pew Research in 2012, the marital education scales tipped. That year, more women married men with less education than the other way around for the first time in our nation's history. The press coverage at the time called it a less flattering term: marrying down.

You can already see this in action on playgrounds across America: Stay at home dads are the new moms.

Who's losing ground?

Once baby boomers retire and millennials make up the majority of the workforce, we may see the gender pay gap disappear altogether. Heck, forget about taking your daughter to work. Rouse that uninspired son of yours out of bed before he grows a silly lumberjack beard to prove his masculinity.

Women shouldn't run everything. Men and women are still different and on the whole, bring different skills to the management table.

Men, for example, tend to be more confident in their decision making skills. Men know they're right, even when they're wrong. Chuckle all you want, but in many situations, that's a crucial skill. A successful organization needs both chutzpah and due diligence.

As for those who won't hire the most talented candidate because of discrimination?

Forget them.

These days, women know what they're worth and they'll take their talents elsewhere. Free market feminism wins in the end.