(Champaign, IL) — The University of Illinois is being sued in federal court by a female professor who claims she is being paid 12-to-56-thousand dollars less than her male colleagues. Industrial design professor Deana McDonagh filed the gender-based wage discrimination lawsuit this week and argues the university retaliated against her for previous complaints about the disparity. She was hired as an associate professor in 2004 and became the first female full professor in the industrial design program in 2014. McDonagh earns just over 100-thousand dollars a year.