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19th Amendmant - Women's Sufrage
After Tennessee becomes the 36th state to ratify the women's suffrage ammendment, the right for white women to vote becomes the 19th amendmant to the U.S. constitution. -
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The Feminist Movement in the U.S.
A brief look at various milestones and focuses of the feminist movement. -
The Second Sex
Feminist author Simone de Beauvoir publishes her book The Second Sex, which explores the philosphy of feminism and applying it to everyday life. -
Enovid
Enovid is the first contraceptive pill to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. -
Discrimination Against Women
The report of the [American] Presidential Commission on the Status of Women found discrimination against women in every aspect of American life and outlined plans to achieve equality. Specific recommendations for women in the workplace included fair hiring practices, paid maternity leave, and affordable childcare. -
The Feminine Mystique
Feminist author Betty Frieden publishes her book The Feminine Mystique, which becomes a symbol and mantra of the second-wave feminist movement. -
Title VII
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 becomes law in the U.S., barring employment discrimination on account of sex, race, etc. by private employers, employment agencies, and unions. -
NOW
Twenty-eight women, among them Betty Friedan, found the National Organization for Women (NOW) to function as a civil rights organization for women. Friedan becomes its first president. -
Miss America Protest
Robin Morgan led members of New York Radical Women to protest the Miss America Pageant of 1968, which they decried as sexist and racist -
Our Bodies Published
The American women's health book Our Bodies is first published as a newsprint booklet priced at 35 cents. -
First Women's Studies Courses
The first two Women's Studies Programs in the United States are established at San Diego State College (later San Diego State University) and SUNY-Buffalo. -
The Black Woman
American feminist Toni Cade Bambara published The Black Woman, an anthology reflecting about the role and importance of Black women within feminism. -
Westbeth Playwrights Feminist Collective Founded
The Westbeth Playwrights Feminist Collective was founded in New York. It was one of the first feminist theater groups formed to write and produce plays about women's issues and to provide work experience in theatrical professions which had been dominated by men. -
Ms. Magazine
American feminists Gloria Steinem and Letty Cottin Pogrebin co-found Ms. magazine. -
COYOTE
In San Francisco, California, Margo St. James organized Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics (COYOTE) to improve the working conditions of prostitutes. -
Roe v. Wade
The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Roe v. Wade that laws prohibiting abortion are unconstitutional. States are constitutionally allowed to place regulations on abortion which fall short of prohibition after the first trimester. -
American Women attributed Time's Person of the Year
Time magazine names American Women as its Time Person of the Year for 1975. It says: "[F]eminism has transcended the feminist movement. In 1975 the women's drive penetrated every layer of society, matured beyond ideology to a new status of general–and sometimes unconscious–acceptance." -
Take Back The Night
The first "Take Back the Night" march is held in Philadelphia in October, following the murder of a microbiologist, Susan Alexander Speeth, who was stabbed to death while walking home alone. -
Marital Rape Law
The first marital rape law was enacted in Nebraska, making it illegal for a husband to rape his wife. -
National Women's Conference
In the U.S., the first National Women's Conference in a century was held in Houston, Texas. Women from all over the country, 20,000 in all, gathered to pass a National Plan of Action. -
Pregnancy Discrimination Act
The Pregnancy Discrimination Act banned employment discrimination against pregnant women in the U.S., stating a woman cannot be fired or denied a job or a promotion because she is or may become pregnant, nor can she be forced to take a pregnancy leave if she is willing and able to work. -
The Dinner Party
Judy Chicago's art piece The Dinner Party is displayed for the first time at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. -
The Glass Cieling Coined
In the first recorded use of the phrase glass ceiling, magazine editor Gay Bryant, a woman, tells an interviewer for AdWeek that "Women have reached a certain point—I call it the glass ceiling. They're in the top of middle management and they're stopping and getting stuck." -
Sister Outsider
Black feminist Audre Lorde publishes this compilation of poems and essays about feminism, and the intersectionality of women of all different identities (within race, class, sexuality, etc). -
The Riot Grrrl Movement
In the early 1990s, the Riot grrrl movement begins in Olympia, Washington, and Washington, D.C. It sought to give women the power to control their voices and artistic expressions, most noted in the punk rock music of feminist band Bikini Kill. -
Becoming the Third Wave
In response to the Anita Hill sexual harassment case, American feminist Rebecca Walker published an article in Ms. Magazine entitled "Becoming the Third Wave" in which she stated, "I am not a post-feminism feminist. I am the third-wave." -
The Gender Equity in Education Act
The Gender Equity in Education Act becomes law in the U.S. It bans sex-role stereotyping and gender discrimination in the classroom. -
The Vagina Monologues
The feminist play The Vagina Monologues, written by American playwright Eve Ensler, premiered in New York. -
V-Day
Eve Ensler and others, including Willa Shalit, a producer of the Westside Theatre production of The Vagina Monologues, launched V-Day, a global non-profit movement that has raised over $75 million for women's anti-violence groups through benefits performances. -
March for Women's Lives
The March for Women's Lives was held in Washington, D.C., to support the right to abortion, access to birth control, scientifically accurate sex education, and prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections, and to show public support for mothers and children. -
Taking a Woman's Last Name
Diana Bijon's husband Michael takes her last name upon marriage, after their lawsuit which led to a new California state law guaranteeing the rights of both married couples and registered domestic partners to choose whichever last name they prefer on their marriage and driving licenses. -
First SlutWalk
The first SlutWalk takes place in Toronto, a march protesting the sexualization and victim blaming of victims of rape and sexual assault.
