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3100 BCE
Matriarchy/Patriarchy
Gender powered structures in which social identity and property descend through either the female (matriarchy) or male (patriarchy) line. -
Domestic Slavery
A term referring to the assertion by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and other female abolitionists that traditional gender roles and legal restrictions created a form of slavery for married women. -
Demographic Transition
Sharp decline in birthrate in the US beginning in the 1790s that was caused by changes in cultural behavior, including the use of birth control. The migration of thousands of young men to the trans-Appalachian west was also a factor in this decline. -
Companionate Marriage
A marriage based on the republican values of equality and mutual respect. Although husbands in these marriages retained significant legal power, they increasingly came to see their wives as loving partners rather than as inferiors or dependents. -
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Married Women's Property Laws
Laws enacted between 1839 and 1860 in New York and other states that permitted married women to own, inherit, and bequeath property. -
Seneca Falls Convention
The first women's rights convention in the US. Held in Seneca Falls, New York, it resulted in a manifesto extending to women the egalitarian republican ideology of the Declaration of Independence. -
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Feminism
Ideology that women should enter the public sphere not only to work on behalf of others, but also for their own equal rights and advancement. Feminists moved beyond advocacy of women's voting rights to seek greater autonomy in professional careers, property rights, and personal relationships. -
American Women Suffrage Association (AWSA)
A women's suffrage organization led by Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell, and others who remained loyal to the Republican Party. Leaders hoped that once Reconstruction was over, it would be women's turn for reform. -
National Woman Suffrage Association
Suffrage group headed by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton that stressed the need for women to lead organizations on their own behalf. The NWSA focused exclusively on women's rights - sometimes denigration men of color in the process - and took up the battle for a federal women's suffrage amendment. -
Minor v Happersett
Supreme Court decision that ruled that suffrage rights were not inherent in citizenship and had not been granted by the 14th amendment, as some women's rights activists argued. Women were citizens, the Court ruled, but state legislatures could deny women the vote if they wished. -
Women's Christian Temperance Union
An organization advocating the prohibition of liquor that spread rapidly after 1879, when charismatic Frances Willard became its leader. Advocating suffrage and a host of reform activities, it launched tens of thousands of women into public life and was the first nationwide organization to identify and condemn domestic violence. -
Hull House
One of the first and most famous social settlements, founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr in an impoverished, largely immigrant neighborhood on Chicago's West Side. Another goal was to develop new roles for women, the first generation of New Women wove the traditional ways of their mothers into the heart of their brave new world. The social activists, often single, were led by educated, often single New Women. -
Maternalism
The belief that women should contribute to civic and political life through their special talents as mothers, Christians, and moral guides. Maternalists put this ideology into action by creating dozens of social reform organizations. -
National American Woman Suffrage Association
Women's suffrage organization created in 1890 by the union of National Women's Suffrage Association and the American Women's Suffrage Association. Up to national ratification of suffrage, the NAWSA played a central role in campaigning for women's rights to vote. -
National Association of Colored Women
Organization created to provide community support. Through its local clubs, the NACW arranged for the care of orphans, founded homes for the elderly, advocated temperance, and undertook public health campaigns -
Republican Motherhood
Idea that the primary political role of American women was to instill a sense of patriotic duty and republican virtue in their children and mold them into exemplary republican citizens. -
Women's Trade Union League
A labor organization for women founded in New York in 1903 that brought elite, middle-class, and working-class women together as allies. The WTUL supported union organizing efforts among garment workers. -
Muller v Oregon
1908 Supreme Court case that upheld that an Oregon law limiting women's workday to 10 hours, based on the need to protect women's health for motherhood. Muller complicated the earlier decision in Lochner v New York, laying out grounds on which states could intervene to protect workers. It divided women's rights activists, however, because some saw its provisions as discriminatory. -
National Woman's Party
A political party that fought for an Equal Rights Amendment to the US Constitution in the early 20th century. -
National War Labor Board
A federal agency that established an 8 hour work day for war workers (and time-and-a-half for overtime), endorsed equal pay for women, and supported worker's rights to organize. -
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
An organization founded by women activists. Its members denounced imperialism, stressed the human suffering caused by militarism, and proposed social justice measures. -
Flapper
A young woman of the 1920's who defied conventional standards of conduct by wearing short skirts and makeup, freely spending money they earned on the latest fashions, dancing to jazz, and flaunting her liberated lifestyle. -
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Culture War
Term to describe a long-standing political struggle, dating to the 1920s, between religious traditionalists and secular liberals. Social issues such as abortion rights and the rights of lesbians and gay men divided these groups. -
19th Amendment
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. AKA women can vote. -
Adkins v Children's Hospital
1923 Supreme Court case that voided a minimum wage for women workers in the District of Columbia, reversing many of the gains that had been achieved through the groundbreaking decision in Muller v Oregon. -
Women's Liberation
New brand of feminism in the '60s that attracted primarily younger, college-educated women fresh from the New Left, antiwar, and civil rights movements who sought to end to the denigration and exploitation of women. -
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Affirmative Action
Policies established in the 60s and 70s by governments, businesses, universities, and other institutions to overcome the effects of past discrimination against specific groups such as racial and ethnic minorities and women. Measures to ensure equal opportunity include setting goals for the admission, hiring, and promotion of minorities; considering minority status when allocating resources; and actively encouraging victims of past discrimination to apply for jobs and other resources. -
The Feminine Mystique
Influential book written by Betty Friedan in 1963 critiquing the ideal whereby women were encouraged to confine themselves to roles within the domestic sphere. -
Equal Pay Act
Law that established the principle of equal pay for equal work. Trade union women were especially critical in pushing for, and winning, congressional passage of the law. -
Civil Rights Act
Law that responded to demands of the civil rights movement by making discrimination in employment, education, and public accommodations illegal. It was the strongest such measure since Reconstruction and included a ban on sex discrimination in employment. -
National Organization for Women (NOW)
Women's civil rights organization formed to eliminate gender discrimination in public institutions and the workplace but by 1970, it also embraced many of the issues raised by more radical feminists. -
Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)
Constitutional amendment passed by Congress in 1972 that would require equal treatment of men and women under federal and state law. Facing fierce opposition from the New Right and the Republican Party, the ERA was defeated as time ran out for state ratification. -
Roe v Wade
Supreme Court ruling that the Constitution protects the rights to abortion, which states cannot prohibit in the early stages of pregnancy. The decision galvanized social conservatives and made abortion a controversial policy issue for decades to come. -
Multiculturalism
Promotion of diversity in gender, race, ethnicity, religion, and sexual preference. This political and social policy became increasingly popular in the US during the 1980s post-civil rights era. -
Separate Sphere
Term used to describe the 19th century view that men and women have different gender-defined characteristics and, consequently, that men should dominate the public sphere of politics and economics, while women should manage the private sector of home and family.