Steinem said the Occupy protests have inspired her, and that they have enjoyed more support than the U.S. civil rights and anti-war movements in the 1960s that took longer to reach a broad audience. "It's much more immediately international," said Steinem, who participated in the earlier causes.
The movement's success in bringing attention to income inequality may help narrow the gender-wage gap, said Mary Gatta, a senior scholar at the Washington-based nonprofit Wider Opportunities for Women. The more people, and especially young women, talk about it, the more likely society is to reject the notion that it's irreversible, she said.
"Seeing the pay gap as part of this larger economic inequality that's being talked about by Occupy Wall Street, I think, is very promising," Gatta said. "Awareness and education are really important."
Women made some progress between 2007 and 2010, as the wage gap narrowed in 35 states, Bureau of Labor Statistics data show. It was smallest in Washington D.C., where women made 89 cents for every $1 a man did, and greatest in Wyoming, at 65 cents.
Among industries, the disparity is often greater in the finance sector, with female financial analysts making 70 cents on the male dollar, the census data show.
After the worst economic downturn in nearly a century, men continue to earn more than women in 361 metropolitan areas in the country, an annual survey by the Census Bureau found. If current trends continue, it will take 45 years for women's salaries to equal that of men's, research by the Institute for Women's Policy Research shows.
According to Steinem, U.S. women earn an average of $2 million less over the course of their lifetimes than men. It isn't because they stop working sooner, she said. "It's because they are paid unequally."
Were it not for the lack of women in top positions of power in finance and government, the global economy would be in better shape, Steinem said.
"Not because we are smarter or better or different, but just because we do not have our masculinity to prove," she said. "And that is huge. Because that means that we don't necessarily think it's just great to earn endless amounts of money for the sake of counting numbers."
While polls indicate there is scant chance of a female headlining either major party in the run for the White House in 2012, Steinem said Americans are ready for a female president after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's bid for the Democratic nomination in 2008.