At the time of the protest, women still did not enjoy many of the same freedoms and rights as men. Despite the passage of the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which prohibited pay discrimination between two people who performed the same job, women comparatively earned 59 cents for every dollar a man made for similar work.[citation needed] In some areas of the country, women with college degrees earned significantly less than men with an eighth grade education.[citation needed] Women were further restricted in terms of their access to higher education, such as medical or law school, and the job market after receiving subsequent degrees.[citation needed] Only 5–10% of women were allowed in institutions of higher education.[citation needed] Sandra Day O'Connor, the first female Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court, who graduated at the top of her class from Stanford Law School, was offered only secretarial jobs in Los Angeles law firms despite her prestigious degree.[1] In 43 states, women were limited in the number of hours they could work and the amount of weight they could carry (generally no more than 25 pounds (11 kg), the size of a toddler, as some feminists noted). In many states, women were also unable to obtain credit cards, make wills, or own property without a husband.[3] The right to serve on a jury was denied to women in some states. Sex-segregated restaurants, planes, and meeting places were commonplace and made some business dealings embarrassing to impossible for professional women.
