A new Pew Research Center study found that female millennial workers, women ages 18 to 32, are more career-driven then men of the same generation.
This has led to a decrease in the U.S. gender pay gap, the study of 2,000 adults, released on Wednesday said. A lower amount of college degrees and wages for men also contributed to the increase in pay for women.
"Today's young women are the first in modern history to start their work lives at near parity with men," researchers said, Reuters reported.
The study showed that in 2012, women of all ages made 84 cents for every dollar that men earned. But women ages 25 to 34 earned 93 cents for every dollar that men earned. Women in that same age group were also more likely than men to be enrolled in college or already have a bachelor's degree, Reuters reported.
Though this is great news for young women, they still have ways to go in terms of workplace equality. Close to 60 percent of millennial women with children said they felt becoming a parent made it more difficult for them to advance in their careers. Only 19 percent of men with children thought the same, Reuters reported.
This is something that's played out in the past, as women traditionally have fallen behind their male counterparts as they get older and start families, the New York Daily News reported.
Researchers also found that women are not as likely to go after high-paying positions as men are. But women are more likely to leave their jobs for family reasons, the Daily News reported.
Women "feel empowered in many ways, yet when they look at the work place, they see it is a 'man's world' with the deck stacked against them," Kim Parker, associate director with the Pew Social & Demographic Trends Project, told the Associated Press.
