The facts are these: Women make up 48 percent of Iowa State’s faculty.

Out of 141 administrators and faculty members who make more than $100,000, eight are women.

That means just 5.7 percent of the big-buck earners here can wear a skirt in a social setting without fear of being chastised.

In fact, you have to pan down to No. 21 on the big-buck list to find a woman.

There you’ll find Elizabeth Hoffman, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. She makes $135,000 a year.

We’re not sure if she regularly wears a skirt. We’re not sure it matters.

But someone, somewhere, at some time must have thought it did. That is, big-buck earners wearing skirts in general—not Dean Hoffman.

That’s unfortunate. It’s discouraging.

And it’s a sad reminder that we haven’t come as far as we’d like to think we have.

Because, in Iowa State’s case, the numbers are nothing less than striking.

There are but eight big-buck earners in ISU’s ivory tower who are female.

Eight. Just think about it.

More than half of the world’s population is female.

More than half of the United States’ population is female. More than half of Iowa’s population is female.

By virtue then of the population pool, shouldn’t half of the big-buck earners here be women?

Alas, the world doesn’t work that way. It probably should. It likely won’t for a long time.

But when you look at the numbers, you shouldn’t be surprised.

Similar insights into other universities show the same thing. Similar insights into major corporations show the same thing.

You should, however, take the numbers as a wake-up call.

We should all wake up to the harsh reality that despite recent strides, gender equality is still somewhat of a farce.