-
Period: to
Women’s Suffrage
Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. At the beginning of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vote, increasing the number of those parties' potential constituencies. -
National Women’s Suffrage Movement formed
In 1869, Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton founded the National Woman Suffrage Association. Later that year, Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe, and others formed the American Woman Suffrage Association. -
Margaret Sanger opens first birth control clinic in the United States,m
On October 16, 1916, Sanger — together with her sister Ethel Byrne and activist Fania Mindell — opened the country's first birth control clinic in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Women lined the block to get birth control information and advice. Nine days later, police raided the clinic and shut it down. -
Jeanette Rankin elected to Congress
Jeannette Pickering Rankin was an American politician and women's rights advocate who became the first woman to hold federal office in the United States. She was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican from Montana in 1916 for one term, then was elected again in 1940. -
19th Amendment of the United States
Passed by Congress on June 4, 1919, and ratified on August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment granted women the right to vote. The 19th Amendment legally guarantees American women the right to vote. Achieving this milestone required a lengthy and difficult struggle—victory took decades of agitation and protest. -
The Alaska Equal Rights Act signed into law
The law, signed on February 16, 1945, prevents and criminalizes discrimination against individuals in public areas based on race. -
Civil Rights Movement launched
The American civil rights movement started in the mid-1950s. A major catalyst in the push for civil rights was in December 1955, when NAACP activist Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a public bus to a white man. -
Period: to
Women’s Liberation Movement
The WLM branch of radical feminism, based on contemporary philosophy, comprised women of racially and culturally diverse backgrounds who proposed that economic, psychological, and social freedom was necessary for women to progress from being second-class citizens in their societies. -
FDA Approves first birth control pill
On June 23, 1960, the FDA approved the sale of Enovid for use as an oral contraceptive. It was manufactured by G.D. Searle and Company, a firm that had also supported Gregory Pincus' research for many years. -
The Feminine Mystique was written
The Feminine Mystique, a landmark book by feminist Betty Friedan published in 1963 described the pervasive dissatisfaction among women in mainstream American society in the post-World War II period. -
Equal Pay Act was signed into law
To prohibit discrimination on account of sex in the payment of wages by employers engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce. -
Civil Rights Act signed into law
This act, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on July 2, 1964, prohibited discrimination in public places, provided for the integration of schools and other public facilities, and made employment discrimination illegal. -
Title IX was passed into law
Congress enacted Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which requires that no person be excluded from participation in, denied the benefits of, or subjected to discrimination on the basis of sex under “any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” It authorizes any federal agency. -
Roe v. Wade Court Case
In Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decided that the right to privacy implied in the 14th Amendment protected abortion as a fundamental right. -
“Battle of the Sexes” tennis match
On Sept. 20, 1973, top women's tennis player Billie Jean King defeated former No. 1 ranked men's tennis player Bobby Riggs in a "Battle of the Sexes" match. -
Sandra Day O’Connor sworn in to US Supreme Court
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor joined the U.S. Supreme Court on September 25, 1981, replacing Justice Potter Stewart. She was the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court. O'Connor was born Sandra Day on March 26, 1930 in El Paso, Texas, but her family lived on a cattle ranch in Arizona.