Erin Brockovich and Venus Williams can add to their considerable accomplishments the raising of public knowledge on an important but neglected subject. Taxes are not simply a man’s problem.

Erin Brockovich won a $2 million prize for her recent work, documented colorfully by the movie bearing her name. As part of a speaking tour to capitalize on her success and fame, Brockovich spent an afternoon with the Everywoman’s Money Conference. After all that hard work, she said, the tax man slashed her reward nearly in half, from $2 million to $1.1 million.

Tennis star Venus Williams found herself similarly disgruntled. Her triumph at the U.S. Open earned $800,000 but during a congratulatory call from President Clinton, Williams repeatedly requested that the president do something about her tax burden. Federal income taxes will grab 40 percent of her hard-fought winnings, 15 percent for social security, cuts for the Medicare payroll, and various state assessments. But celebrities such as Venus and Erin are not the only women calling attention to the tax issue.

Women now sit side-by-side with the best of the old boys, trading stock, playing sports, and heading technology and financial companies. A recent Fortune article touched on this trend, ranking nation’s the 50 most powerful women. Among these were the CEOs of Hewlett-Packard, MTV, Handspring, and eBay, as well as a few bigwigs from banking institutions. Women are also now well represented in the Forbes list of the world’s wealthiest. Five of them grace the nation’s top 25, with collective earnings of $70 billion. One of these women, Abigail Johnson, top shareholder of Fidelity Investments, has largely self-made her $10 billion net worth. But excessive taxation affects more than the top one percent.

More women are growing wealthier as they advance through their own careers. They see the marriage penalty in effect, punishing their success in both finances and relationships. When compared to the previous tax burden as singles, a middle-class married couple’s tax burden is higher by about $1,000 dollars, sometimes more. Now that the number of single women is rising rapidly, they, too, notice the effects of taxation.

In 1998, 43 million women chose to remain single. High tax rates prohibited them from supporting themselves as well as they could. While not subject to the marriage tax, the high, “progressive” tax rate is prominent on the minds of those who manage all their own money. But the current tax regime punishes those who work, especially those who work well.

This is hardly the prize for which anyone fought, and as inequality fades into history, women need to make common cause with the good old boys. All women should join Venus Williams and Erin Brockovich to convince Congress that the time is long overdue for a more equitable tax system, one that does not punish successful individuals but instead rewards them for their abilities and hard work.