Women are making gains in education, earnings and professional status, an issue worthy of celebration during this National Business Women's Week. But as was true when the spotlighted week began in 1928, gender inequities linger in the work place.

Because tracking women's progress is crucial to improvement, we are encouraged by the work of the Women's Fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, which is continuing its work on PULSE, a study of women's and girls' status in our region. By next summer, we'll be able to see just how well - or poorly - working women are doing here.

However, the figures are already clear on a national level.

Today 68 million women are in the labor force, making up 47 percent of all workers. Now 60 percent of all women work outside the home, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

As females close the gap in employment, they still suffer from a gap in wages. Women earn 76 cents for every dollar paid to men, a one-cent decline from last year. According to the National Committee on Pay Equity, the wage gap won't disappear until 2039.

Closing that wage gap would benefit children as well as women. According to studies by the AFL-CIO and the Institute for Women's Policy Research, if women earned the same wages as did men, their annual family income would rise by $4,000, and poverty rates would be cut in half.

So what will it take for women to achieve workplace equity? The keys are education, support, self-determination and a continued focus on progress.

In education, women are clearly making gains. In 1970, just 43 percent of all college graduates were female. Now 52 percent are. Women earn 57 percent of all master's degrees today and 42 percent of all doctoral degrees.

Nearly a third of all businesses are owned by women, and women fill at least a quarter of corporate officer positions in 60 of the Fortune 500 companies.

This week is a fine time to celebrate that progress - and to vow to keep the status and progress of working women as a priority for our nation.