One in 18 women working full time earned $100,000 or more in 2009, up 14 percent in two years according to new, nationwide census figures compared to seven men, up by just 4 percent.  In Washington, that growth has happened even faster, further cementing the city’s reputation as the land of opportunity for ambitious professional women.  In fact, women in Washington had the highest median pay among all full-time working women – almost $54,000 compared to $37,000 across the country.

According to information from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, women now also outnumber men at almost every level of higher education, with three women attending college and graduate school for every two men.  Unmarried women, in particular, who are in their 20s, childless and work in cities have caught up with or are ahead of young men living in all but a handful of the US’s largest cities.

But don’t get too excited.  Despite all this progress, just 3 percent of Fortune 500 CEOS are women and the full-time workforce remains predominantly male with only a small segment of either sex having reached the $100,000 benchmark – 2.4 million women to 7.9 million men.

Do you think being single means you’ll earn more money?