MAKERS Women’s History Timeline.
Use this timeline to revisit history and in some instances to make the impact of past histories feel more current.
1916: Jeannette Rankin is the first woman elected to congress. [Ileana Ros‐Lehtinen]; Margaret Sanger opens the first family‐planning clinic on the Lower East Side of New York City. [Byllye Avery; Faye Wattleton]
1920: The Nineteenth Amendment passes, women “get” the right to vote. [Geraldine Ferraro; Nancy Pelosi; Kay Bailey Hutchinson]
1923: The Equal Rights Amendment is first introduced to Congress by Alice Paul. [Phyllis Schlafly]
1933: Frances Perkins becomes the Secretary of Labor, the first woman to head a president’s cabinet. [Hillary Clinton, Madeline Albright, Condoleezza Rice]
1955: Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat to a white man and sparks the Montgomery Bus Boycott. [Diane Nash]
1961: Rita Moreno wins an Academy Award for West Side Story, one of the first and still few Latinos to win.
1963: Betty Friedan publishes The Feminist Mystique.
1966: The National Organization for Women is created. [Aileen Hernandez; Rita May Brown]; Marlo Thomas stars as That Girl. [Carol Burnett; Diane English]
1967: Kathrine Switzer runs the Boston Marathon as K. Switzer and after being nearly kicked off the race course, vows to finish the race whatever it takes. She does finish and by 1974, the marathon officially allows women; Muriel Siebert is the first woman to have a seat on the NY Stock Exchange.
1968: Robin Morgan and others protest the Miss America Pageant in Atlantic City, New Jersey, tossing symbols of femininity to be burned in a freedom trash can; The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says it’s illegal to retire stewardesses for marrying or reaching the age of thirty‐five. [Dusty Roads; Aileen Hernandez]
1970: Judy Blume publishes Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret after being laughed at when she said she wanted to be a writer [Sandra Cisnceros]; Our Bodies Ourselves is published [Boston Women’s Health Collective]; Women at Newsweek file a sex‐ discrimination complaint with the EEOC. [Lynn Povich]
1972: Roe v. Wade confirms that women can determine when and whether to become mothers. [Sarah Weddington]
1973: Battle of the Sexes; Billie Jean King v. Bobbie Riggs. [Donna De Varona]
1974: The New Jersey Supreme Court rules that Little League must allow girls to play. [Maria Pepe]
1980: The U.S. Census concedes that “head of household” need not be male. [Sheryl Sandberg]
1981: Sandra Day O’Connor is appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, the first woman to do so. [Ruth Bader Ginsburg]
1982: After successfully lobbying by Phyllis Schlafly and other conservative forces, the ERA fails to ratify; Carol Gilligan publishes In A Different Voice; Brenda Berkman becomes one of the first female firefighters in New York City.
1983: Sally Ride heads into space, the first woman astronaut to do so. [France Córdova; Nichelle Nichols]
1993: President Bill Clinton allows female pilots to fly in combat. [Pat Foote]
1994: The Violence Against Women Act passes. [Esta Sola]
1995: Beijing Women’s Conference – feminism is globally celebrated. [Charlotte Bunch; Sheryl WuDunn]
1997: WNBA launches. [Vivian Stringer; Violet Palmer]
1998: Meg Whitman joins eBay as CEO [Andrea Jung; Ursula Burns; Linda Alvarado; Marissa Mayer]; Eve Ensler and others launch V‐Day.
2006: Katie Couric is the first woman to solo host an evening news program [Christiane Amanpour; Barbara Walters]
2008: Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama fight for the Democratic party nomination. [Hillary Clinton; Beverly Guy Sheftall]
2009: Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act is signed into law by President Obama. [Lilly Ledbetter; Karen Nussbaum]
2010: Repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell [Kirsten Gillibrand; Ellen DeGeneres]
2011:
2012:
2013: Women are allowed on the front line of combat. [Anu Bhagwati; Pat Foote]