Here we are at the end of March, and another Women’s History Month has come and nearly gone. Although a few news venues have taken the annual opportunity to spotlight women who have made a significant mark in history, it always seems a bit sad to me that we still have to set aside a special month to honor women who have made contributions. Shouldn’t we just do this naturally all the time all year, like we tend to do for famous guys who make history?

Anyway, let’s take a look at the spotlight that fell on women during Women’s History Month 2008. Almost as if on cue, the month has been filled with events that have put women in the news.

The New York governor’s debacle provided us with two unfortunate stereotypes of women, the victim and the vixen. Getting beyond that banal duality, March has given us the continuing campaign of America’s first major female candidate for the presidency, and, love her or dislike her, she has been fair and consistent in her message that she promotes “human rights, not just women’s rights.” This is a positive message, but it is unfortunate that as a female candidate, she feels compelled to assure voters of this.

Statistics released this month spotlight women’s progress in a variety of areas, some of which are startling and wonderful. New educational statistics released by the U.S. Department of Education tell us that in 1900, there were only 23 doctorates awarded to women in our country. In 2005, 515,000 women in America received doctorates.

When the cavalcade of college graduations begins in a couple of months, statistics indicate that 59 percent of bachelor;s degrees in the U.S. will be awarded to women, 61 percent of master;s degrees will be earned by women and that 52 percent of professional degrees in medicine and law will go to women. Checking my math, this indicates the majority of degrees in each category will go to women.

This educational leg up does not translate so well into the economics of the job force, however. Back in 1942, the National War Labor Board urged employers voluntarily to make “adjustments to equalize wages or salary rates paid to females with rates paid to males for comparable quality and quantity of work.” This didn’t happen. Even after the Equal Pay Act, signed by President John Kennedy in 1963, formalized the requirement for equal pay, more than four decades later men and women have not reached parity in salary dollars earned.

According to the Labor Department, in 1963 women earned 59 cents for every dollar earned by men for equal work; in 2005, the rate had increased to 81 cents for every dollar, a slow march to close the gender earning gap. And society does seem to be shifting its attitude toward women in the workplace: There are more female CEO’s than ever; more women are university administrators (the provost at the university where I work is a woman, as are some of the university’s most recognized researchers), and gender bias toward certain jobs seems to be evaporating.

Despite the high profile of a woman running for the White House, statistics released this month indicate fairly low percentages of women in politics. Women constitute 16 percent of the membership in the Congress and 23.6 percent of state legislature members. Ironically, this week’s issue of Newsweek puts a positive spin on this low percentage. In an article titled “Girls Will Be Girls. Or Not,” the author examines why so few women get embroiled in public sex scandals. One of the conclusions is that there are so few women in public office that there is just not enough of a critical mass to make scandals statistically viable.

While making huge strides in business, elected office and mainstream society in general is significant for women, the small, incremental changes that are coming about as traditional and new roles for women expand are equally important. Marian Wright Edelman, a native South Carolinian and founder of the Children’s Defense Fund, commented once on the integral role of these small steps: “We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily difference we can make, which, over time, can add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.”

My granddaughter was born just over a month ago, and I have found myself wondering about the world in which this little girl will grow up. My guess is that she will have expanded opportunities and widened vistas, but that she will also face some gender challenges lingering in our society.

I ran across the text of a speech the other day that the late Rep. Barbara Jordan gave in 1976. More than 30 years later, her words ring truer than ever, not only in thinking about the world in which my granddaughter will grow up, but also for us now during this momentous year of 2008: “We are a people trying not only to solve the problems of the present, but are attempting on a larger scale to fulfill the promise of America. We are attempting to fulfill our national purpose: to create and sustain a society in which all of us are equal.”

Ms. Beasley is grants director for Clemson's Institute for Economic and Community Development.