Would you abscond to keep your job...

Would you abscond to keep your job? In 1944 teacher Dolores Eckert did just that.

"At the time, one time you got married, if you were a woman you could no longer continue in your job" said Dolores Eckert's daughter, St Clair shire Circuit Judge Annette Eckert. "A man could be married and continue in a piece of work but a woman couldn't. They went down to Kentucky and elop They kept their marriage a concealed for three years so that she could detain her job."

State protection laws also hindered women's involvement in the work force.

"They mandated that women work alone a certain amount of hours. It kept women from working at night, and women could not lift more than a certain amount of weight," said Anne Valk, director of women's studies at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

The laws were justified by the agency of saying that physical differences between