Important dates in women’s rights history

By 103069

  • Philadelphia committee led by Benjamin Franklin attempts to regulate waste disposal and water pollution.

  • First Women's Right Convention BY Women

    First Women's Right Convention BY Women

    In the first women’s rights convention organized by women, the Seneca Falls Convention is held in New York, with 300 attendees
  • "Ain't I a Woman?" Speech

    "Ain't I a Woman?" Speech

    Sojourner Truth a former slave turned abolitionist and women’s rights activist, delivers her famous "Ain't I a Woman?" speech at the Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio.

  • Henry David Thoreau publishes Walden

  • The term ecology is coined in German as Oekologie by Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel

  • The term acid rain is coined by Robert Angus Smith in the book Air and Rain

  • The term smog is coined by Henry Antoine Des Voeux in a London meeting to express concern over air pollution

  • US Congress created the National Park Service

  • First Birth Control Clinic in U.S.

    First Birth Control Clinic in U.S.

    Margaret Sanger opens the first birth control clinic in the United States. Located in Brownsville, Brooklyn, her clinic was deemed illegal under the “Comstock Laws” forbidding birth control, and the clinic was raided on October 26, 1916. When she had to close two additional times due to legal threats, she closed the clinic and eventually founded the American Birth Control League in 1921—the precursor to today’s Planned Parenthood.
  • first woman elected to Congress

    first woman elected to Congress

    Jeannette Rankin of Montana, a longtime activist with the National Woman Suffrage Association, is sworn in as the first woman elected to Congress as a member of the House of Representatives.
  • Ratification of the 19th amendment

    Ratification of the 19th amendment

    Ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is completed, declaring “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”

  • Rachel Carson publishes Silent Spring

  • Equal Pay Act

    Equal Pay Act

    President John F. Kennedy signs into law the Equal Pay Act, prohibiting sex-based wage discrimination between men and women performing the same job in the same workplace.
  • Civil Rights Act

    Civil Rights Act

    President Lyndon B. Johnson, signs the Civil Rights Act into law; Title VII bans employment discrimination based on race, religion, national origin or sex.

  • The Apollo 8 picture of Earthrise

  • Earth Day

    millions of people gather in the United States for the first Earth Day organized by Gaylord Nelson, former senator of Wisconsin, and Denis Hayes, Harvard graduate student. US Environmental Protection Agency established
  • Roe V. Wade

    Roe V. Wade

    U.S. Supreme Court declares that the Constitution protects a woman’s legal right to an abortion.

  • Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer entered into force

  • Violence Against Women Act

    Violence Against Women Act

    Bill Clinton signs the bill as part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, providing funding for programs that help victims of domestic violence, rape, sexual assault, stalking and other gender-related violence.

  • Kyoto Protocol

    The Kyoto Protocol was negotiated in Kyoto, Japan in December. Countries that ratify this protocol commit to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases

  • U.S. rejects the Kyoto Protocol

  • U.S. announces it will cease participation in the Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation

  • U.S. announces it will rejoin the Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation

  • first female Vice President sworn in

    first female Vice President sworn in

    Vice President Kamala Harris was sworn in as Vice President of the United States of America. Not only is the the first female VP, she is also the first black and southeast asian Vice President in the nation's history.