When young women were found to make only 82 percent of what their male peers do just one year out of college, many were at a loss to explain it. All the traditional reasons put forward to interpret the pay gap—that women fall behind when they leave the workforce to raise kids, for example, or that they don’t seek as many management roles—failed to justify this one. These young women didn’t have kids yet. And because they were just one year removed from their undergraduate degrees, few of these women yet had the chance to go after (much less decline) leadership roles. But there are other reasons why the pay gap remains so persistent. The first is that no matter how many women may be getting college degrees, the university experience is still an unequal one. The second is that our higher education system is not designed to focus on the economic consequences of our students’ years on campus. Now that women arc the majority of college students and surpass men in both the number of undergraduate and advanced degrees awarded, one might think the college campus is a pretty equal place. It is not. Studies show that while girls do better than boys in high school, they start to trail off during their college years. They enroll in different kinds of classes, tend to major in less rigorous(非常严格的)subjects, and generally head off with less ambitious plans. As a result, it's not surprising that even the best educated young women enter the workplace with a slight disadvantage. Their college experience leaves them somewhat confused, still stumbling(栽倒)over the dilemmas their grandmothers' generation sought to destroy. Are they supposed to be pretty or smart? Strong or sexy(性感的)? All their lives, today's young women have been pushed to embrace both perfection and passion to pursue science and sports, math and theater and do it all as well as they possibly can. No wonder they are not negotiating for higher salaries as soon as they get out of school. They are too exhausted, and too scared of failing.