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1964 Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race and sex.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is established to investigate discrimination complaints -
1968 The EEOC rules that sex-segregated help wanted ads are illegal, a ruling later upheld by the Supreme Court.
Shirley Chisholm is the first black woman elected to Congress.
The National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) is founded. -
1981 Sandra Day O’Conner is the first woman ever appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Ruth Bader Ginsberg joins her in 1993.
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1993 The Family and Medical Leave Act goes into effect, allowing women workers to take employment leave after giving birth.
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2013
In Jan. 2013, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced that the ban on women serving in combat roles would be lifted. In a Jan. 9 letter to Panetta urging the change Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey said, "The time has come to rescind the direct combat exclusion rule for women and to eliminate all unnecessary gender-based barriers to service." The move reverses the 1994 rule that prohibited women from serving in combat. The change will be gradual; some positions will be a -
2016
Effective Jan. 2, 2016, women will be allowed to serve in any job in the armed services, provided they meet gender neutral performance standards. This move, initiated in 2013 and finalized under Defense Secretary Ash Carter, will open approximately 220,000 jobs to females.
