women's rights history

We've come a long way.

Imagine a world where women are considered second-class citizens, not allowed to own property, maintain wages, sign a contract, vote or even hold an opinion independent of their husbands. Seems unimaginable doesn't it? Yet that was our history in the United States and it is only through the bravery, dedication and hard work of many individuals and organizations that the rights we take for granted today, exist.

1776  Abigail Adams writes to her husband, John, who is attending the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, asking that he and the other men, who were at work on the Declaration of independence, "Remember the Ladies." 

1820s-1880s "The Cult of Domesticity," a phenomenon dubbed by historians, reveals that American's in general, held highly stereotypical notions about women's and men's roles in society. 

1829 Author Frances Wright travels the United States on a paid lecture tour, perhaps the first ever by a woman.  She attacks organized religion for the secondary place it assigns women and advocates the empowerment of women through divorce and birth control. 

1836 Sarah Grimke begins her speaking career as an abolitionist and a women's rights advocate.  Male abolitionists, who consider her public speaking a liability, eventually silence her. 

1837 The first National Female Anti-Slavery Society convention meets in New York City.  Eighty-one delegates from twelve states attend. 

1840 The World Anti-Slavery Convention is held in London.  Abolitionists Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton attend, but were barred from participating in the meeting.  This snub leads them to decide to hold a women's rights convention when they return to America. 

1848 The first women's rights convention in the United States is held in Seneca Falls, New York.  There are more than 300 in attendance.  Many participants sign a "Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions" that outlines the main issues and goals for the emerging women's movement.  Thereafter, women's rights meetings are held on a regular basis. 

1851 Sojourner Truth delivers her "Ain't I a Woman?" speech at a women's rights convention in Akron, Ohio. 

1855 Prominent suffragists Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell marry.  They eliminate the vow of obedience from the ceremony and include a protest against unfair marriage laws. 

1861-1865 The American Civil War disrupts suffrage activity as women, North and South, divert their energies to "war work."  The War itself, serves as a "training ground," as women gain important organizational and occupational skills they will later use in postbellum organizational activity. 

1866 Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony form the American Equal Rights Association, an organization for white and black women and men dedicated to the goal of universal suffrage. 

1868 The 14th Amendment is ratified, which extends to all citizens the protections of the Constitution against unjust state laws.  This Amendment was the first to define "citizens" and "voters" as "male." 

1868 Stanton and Anthony have a falling out with longtime ally Horace Greely, editor of the New York Tribune.  As a result, Stanton and Anthony begin publishing The Revolution, a weekly newspaper devoted to suffrage and other progressive causes. 

1870 The 15th Amendment enfranchises African American men. 

1872 Susan B. Anthony is arrested and brought to trial (denied trial by jury) in Rochester, New York, for attempting to vote for Ulysses S. Grant in the presidential election.  At the same time, Sojourner Truth appears at a polling booth in Grand Rapids, Michigan, demanding a ballot; she is turned away. 

1878 The first International Women's Rights Congress is held in Paris, France. 

1886 Women protest being excluded from the dedication ceremonies for the Statue of Liberty. 

1890 Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr found Hull House, a settlement house project in Chicago's 19th Ward.  Within one year, there are more than a hundred settlement houses, largely operated by women, throughout the United States.  The settlement house movement and the Progressive campaign of which it was a part propelled thousands of college-educated white women and a number of women of color into lifetime careers in social work.  It also made women an important voice to be reckoned with in American politics. 

1893 Katharine Lee Bates climbs to the top of Pike's Peak and is inspired to compose a poem, "America, the Beautiful."

1896 Mary Church Terrell, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Margaret Murray Washington, Fanny Jackson Coppin, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Charlotte Forten Grimke and former slave Harriet Tubman meet in Washington, D.C. to form the National Association of Colored Women (NACW).  

1911 The National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage (NAOWS) is organized.  Led by Mrs. Arthur Dodge, its members included wealthy, influential women and some Catholic clergymen. 

1912 Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive (Bull Moose/Republican) Party becomes the first national political party to adopt a woman suffrage plank. 

1916 Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first American woman elected to represent her state in the United States House of Representatives. 

1918-1920 World War I erupts and slows down the suffrage campaign.  Some suffragists decide to shelve their suffrage activism in favor of "war work."  In the long run, this decision proves to be a prudent one as it adds yet another reason to why women deserve the vote. 

1920 The 19th Amendment, which grants women the right to vote, is ratified.  The League of Women Voters is established. 

1941 A massive government and industry media campaign persuades women to take jobs during the war.  Seven million women respond, becoming industrial "Rosie the Riveters," and more than 400,000 join the military. 

1955 Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a bus for a white passenger, launching the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. 

1960 The Food and Drug Administration approves the use and distribution of birth control pills. 

1963 The Equal Pay Act requires equal pay for men and women performing equal work. 

1963 Betty Friedan's best seller, The Feminine Mystique, is published, laying the groundwork for the modern feminist movement.

1966 The National Organization for Women (NOW) is founded to end sexual discrimination. 

1972 Title IX, which outlaws sex discrimination in education, is passed. 

1973 In Roe vs. Wade, the United States Supreme Court establishes a women's right to abortion, overriding the anti-abortion laws of 46 states.

1973 Tennis champion Billie Jean King defeats Bobby Riggs in the "Battle of the Sexes." 

1980 The Reverend Marjorie S. Matthew is elected as a bishop of the United Methodist Church, becoming the nation's first woman to sit on the governing body of a major religious denomination.

1981 At the request of women's organizations, President Carter proclaims the first "National Women's History Week," incorporating March 8, International Women's Day.

1981 In San Jose, California, a strike of city workers wins salaries based on comparable worth for nearly 1500 women, a national first.

1981 Sandra Day O'Connor is the first woman ever appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

1981 Kathryn Sullivan, NASA astronaut who had flown higher than any other woman, and Sylvia Earle, who had dived deeper than any other human, added to their list of achievements admission to the previously all-male Explorers Club.

1982 Ratification efforts for an Equal Rights Amendment fail.

1982 Wisconsin became the first state in the nation to pass a law that prohibited discrimination against homosexuals in all areas regulated by the state.

1983 The United States Coast Guard unequivocally took the stand that women must be completely integrated into the Coast Guard.

1983 Sally Ride became the first American woman to travel in space.

1984 Sex discrimination in the admission policies of organizations such as the Jaycees is forbidden by the Supreme Court, opening many previously all-male organizations to women.

1984 Geraldine Ferraro was the first woman in American history to be chosen as the nominee for Vice President on a major party ticket.

1984 The non-partisan National Political Congress of Black Women was founded by Shirley Chisholm to address women's rights issues and encourage participation in the electoral process at every level.

1985 Tracey Thurman of Connecticut was the first woman to win a civil suit as a battered wife.

1985 Wilma Mankiller became the first woman to assume the duties of principal chief of a major Native American tribe, the Cherokee in Oklahoma. In the historic tribal elections of 1987, Mankiller won the post out-right and brought unprecedented attention to the tribe as a result

1985 Christa McAuliffe, 36, a high school teacher in Concord, NH, was chosen to be the first "average citizen" in space.

1986 The Supreme Court declared that sexual harassment on the job is sex discrimination and a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

1986 Amy Eilberg was the first women ordained as a rabbi by the Conservative Rabbinical Assembly.

1987 The Fund for the Feminist Majority was founded by Eleanor Smeal to help women candidates win public offices.

1989 Over 600,000 marchers demonstrated for women's reproductive rights in Washington, D.C.

1989 In Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, the Supreme Court upheld a Missouri statute that said that human life began at conception, barred the use of public funds for abortion, prohibited abortions at public health facilities and required physicians to test for fetal viability after the 19th week of pregnancy.

1989 President George Bush vetoed a bill approved by the U.S. House and Senate that would permit the use of Medicaid funds to pay for abortions for poor women who were victims of "promptly reported" rape or incest.

1992 Women owned businesses employed more workers in the United States than the Fortune 500 companies did worldwide.

1992 In "The Year of the Woman," a record number of women run for public office, and win.  Twenty-four women are elected to the United States House of Representatives and six to the United States Senate. 

1993 Women held a record number of positions in state as well as federal government. 3 governors, 11 lieutenant governors, 8 attorneys general, 13 secretaries of state, 19 state treasurers, 6 senators, 48 in the House of Representatives.

1994 The Violence Against Women Act tightens federal penalties for sex offenders, funds services for victims of rape and domestic violence, and provides for special training of police officers.  

1996 U.S. women's success Summer Olympics (19 gold medals, 10 silver, 9 bronze) is the result of large numbers of girls and women active in sports since the passage of Title IX.

1997 Elaborating on Title IX, the Supreme Court ruled that college athletics programs must actively involve roughly equal numbers of men and women to qualify for federal support.