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The first woman's rights convention is held in Seneca Falls, New York. Attended by 300 people including 40 men. Discussions range from the reforming marriage and property laws to a woman’s right to vote. In the end, 68 women and 32 men sign a Declaration of Sentiments calling for equal treatment of women and men under law and voting rights for women.
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Elizabeth Cady Stanton, active abolitionist, becomes an earlier architect of the woman’s rights and suffrage movements. She forms a partnership with Susan B. Anthony to promote the cause of women’s rights. In addition, she advocates a number of other issues beyond voting rights such as a woman’s parental and property rights, employment and income rights, and divorce laws.
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Susan B. Anthony’s Quaker upbringing influences the role she plays in the 19th century. She begins her professional life in teaching, one of only a few jobs open to women, earning one-fifth the salary of her male colleagues. Exhausted from 10 years of teaching, she joins the temperance society and in 1851 meets Elizabeth Stanton. They form a life-long personal and professional relationship. During the Civil War Susan Anthony works for the emancipation of slaves and tries to link woman’s suffrage
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In 1868, the 14th Amendment is ratified but does not mention women thus, they are continually denied the status of legal citizenship.
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In 1869, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton form the National Woman Suffrage Association in order to win the constitutional right to vote.
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Jeannette Rankin becomes the first woman to serve in the U.S. Congress, when most states don’t grant women the right to vote. In 1916 she runs for Congress as a progressive Republican and wins serving one term.
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After over seventy years of struggle, women are finally granted the right to vote as the 19th Amendment is ratified. With most southern states against the Amendment, the vote comes down to the state of Tennessee where it passes by one vote in the Tennessee house. The deciding vote is cast by Representative Harry Burn who carried in his pocket a letter from his mother encouraging him to vote for women’s suffrage.
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The Feminine Mystique, by Betty Friedan is published in 1963. The book attacks the notion that a woman’s only role is as homemaker and ignites the contemporary women’s movement.
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In 1964, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act bans discrimination in employment on the basis of race and sex. At the same time the Act establishes the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to investigate complaints and impose penalties on sex discrimination.
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By 1966, many women activists are frustrated with the EEOC’s lack of aggressive enforcement. This leads Betty Goldstein Friedan and Rev. Pauli Murray to the form the National Organization for Women (NOW) as a leading organization to bring women into full participation in the mainstream of American society.
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In 1973, the Supreme Court hands down its ruling in Roe v. Wade, establishing a woman's right to safe and legal abortion and overriding the anti-abortion laws of many states.
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In 1981, President Ronald Reagan nominates Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. As an associate justice, O’Connor becomes the crucial swing vote for many cases where the Court is split along ideological lines.
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Dr. Sally Ride becomes the first American woman to be sent into space.
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Nominated by President Bill Clinton in 1997, Madeleine K. Albright becomes first woman U.S. Secretary of State.
