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Women’s Suffrage Movement
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. -
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. -
Jeanette Rankin elected to Congress
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. -
Margaret Sanger opens first birth control clinic in the United States
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. -
19th Amendment of the United States
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. -
The Alaska Equal Rights Act signed into law
The Daily Alaska Empire printed that her testimony "shamed the opposition into a 'defensive whisper. '" The bill was signed by Governor Gruening into law on February 16, 1945. -
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Women’s Liberation Movement
The women's liberation movement was a political alignment of women and feminist intellectualism. -
Civil Rights Movement launched
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. -
FDA Approves first birth control pill
Oral contraceptives are the most commonly used method of reversible contraception in the U.S. Oral contraceptive pills were first approved for prescription use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1960. -
“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. -
The Feminine Mystique was written
The Feminine Mystique is a book by Betty Friedan, widely credited with sparking second-wave feminism in the United States. First published by W. W. Norton on February 19, 1963. -
Equal Pay Act was signed into law
Signed into law by President John F. Kennedy on June 10, 1963, this historic legislation recognized that women's work—and their fair and equal treatment in the workplace—is vital to our country's economic prosperity. -
Civil Rights Act signed into law
Despite Kennedy's assassination in November of 1963, his proposal culminated in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. President Lyndon Johnson signed it into law just a few hours after it was passed by Congress on July 2, 1964. -
Title IX was passed into law
Title IX of the Civil Rights Act was signed into law on June 23, 1972, by President Richard M. Nixon. -
Roe v. Wade Court Case
Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States generally protected a right to have an abortion. -
Sandra Day O’Connor sworn in to US Supreme Court
In 1981, O'Connor was sworn in to the Supreme Court, the first woman to be appointed since its creation in 1789. President Ronald Reagan nominated O'Connor after making a campaign promise to have a woman on the nation's highest court.