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Women's Rights Movement Begins
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her friends were the first group of women to plan and carry out a specific and large-scale program -
First woman to graduate law school
Ada H. Kepley was the first woman to graduate law school. However, even if women graduated law school, women could still be denied the right to plead a client's case until 1971 -
Women gain the right to vote
Lydia Taft was the first woman who officially voted in the United States -
Women can now earn the same wages
President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act to protect both men and women from sex-based wage discrimination -
Women can serve jury duty
The Civil Rights Act of 1957 gave women the right to serve on juries but it wasn't until 1973 that all states allowed it -
Women gain the right to open a bank account
Before 1974, women could not open their own bank accounts without their husbands' permission -
Women can attend military academies
U.S. Military Academy at West Point, U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, and the Air Force Academy finally accepted their first female students -
Women can go on maternity leave
The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 is meant to "prohibit sex discrimination on the basis of pregnancy." -
Women can attend Ivy League Universities
Harvard Law School did not accept women applicants until 1977. Princeton and Yale admitted their first female students in 1969.
In Rajender v. University of Minnesota, Shyamala Rajender filed a lawsuit against the University of Minnesota for discriminating on the basis of sex and national origin. Rajender won the case in 1980. -
Women can serve in front-line combat
Although women had made amazing progress in the military for the past couple decades, they were not allowed to serve in the front lines until recently.
