1638 The General Court of Massachusetts Bay banishes Anne Hutchinson for challenging ministerial authority.

1648 Lawyer and landowner Margaret Brent unsuccessfully seeks to have two votes in the Maryland Assembly.

1769 The Daughters of Liberty begin supporting the Non-importation Agreement.

1776 Abigail Adams tells John Adams to remember the ladies and limit their husbands’ power over them.

New Jersey grants women the right to vote in its state constitution.

1777 New York defines voters as free, white, male citizens.

1780 Massachusetts defines voters as free, white, male citizens.

1783 New Jersey grants women suffrage rights.

1784 New Hampshire defines voters as free, white, male citizens.

1792 A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Englishwoman Mary Wollstonecraft is published.

1807 The New Jersey legislature disenfranchises women.

1821 Connecticut makes abortion after quickening illegal.

The first women’s college-level institution, Troy Female Seminary, opens.

1826 The American Society for the Promotion of Temperance is founded.

1829 Fanny Wright becomes the first female public speaker in the United States.

1833 Lydia Maria Child publishes An Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans, the first antislavery book by a northern abolitionist calling for the immediate emancipation of the nation’s 2 million slaves.

The Female Anti-Slavery Society of Philadelphia is founded.

1834 Female mill workers in Lowell, Massachusetts, strike.

1839 Mississippi passes the first married women’s property law in the nation.

1848 The first women’s rights convention is held in Seneca Falls, New York.

1849 Amelia Bloomer starts publishing the Lily, a temperance newspaper and the first newspaper in the United States owned, edited, and published by a woman.

1850 Former slave Harriet Tubman begins leading slaves to freedom.

The first national women’s rights convention is held in Worcester, Massachusetts.

1851 Former slave Sojourner Truth addresses a women’s rights convention in Akron, Ohio, making what becomes known as her “Ain’tIa Woman” speech.

1853 Lucy Stone keeps her family’s name after marriage; other women who keep their names are known as Lucy Stoners.

1859 The American Medical Association announces its opposition to abortion.

Kansas territory grants women the right to vote in school elections.

1860 Connecticut becomes the first state to prohibit all abortions.

1866 The Fourteenth Amendment is passed by Congress, defining citizens as male for the first time.

The American Equal Rights Association is founded. It is the first organization in the United States to advocate national woman suffrage.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton becomes the first woman to run for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, running as an independent. No woman, including herself, could vote for her.

1869 Julia C. Addington of Mitchell County, Iowa, becomes the first woman elected to a public office when voters choose her for county superintendent of school.

1868 Sorosis, the first professional women’s club, is founded.

Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton begin publishing The Revolution in support of woman suffrage.

The Fourteenth Amendment is ratified.

1869 The National Woman Suffrage Association is founded. The American Woman Suffrage Association is founded.

Wyoming Territory grants women the rights to vote and to hold public office.

Congress passes the Fifteenth Amendment, granting African American men the right to vote.

1870 The American Woman Suffrage Association begins publishing The Woman’s Journal.

The Fifteenth Amendment is added to the Constitution. It does not specifically exclude women from voting, and several women attempt to vote.

Congress revokes woman suffrage in Utah Territory.

Esther Mae Morris of Sweetwater County, Wyoming becomes the first woman judge in the United States when is appointed justice of the peace.

1872 Victoria Claflin Woodhull becomes the first woman presidential candidate.

Susan B. Anthony and fourteen other women register and vote, testing whether or not the Fourteenth Amendment can be interpreted as protecting women’s rights. Their attempt fails.

Congress passes a law to give female federal employees equal pay for equal work.

1873 In Bradwell v. Illinois, the U.S. Supreme Court decides that states can restrict women from practicing any profession in the interest of “preserv[ing] family harmony and uphold[ing] the law of the Creator.”

Congress passes the Comstock law, defining contraceptive information as obscene material.

1874 The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union is founded.

1875 In Minor v. Happersett, the U.S. Supreme Court rejects the argument that the Fourteenth Amendment grants women voting rights.

1878 The woman suffrage amendment, known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, is introduced in the U.S. Congress for the first time.

1879 Belva Lockwood successfully lobbies Congress to pass legislation permitting women to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court. She becomes the first woman admitted to practice before the Court.

The U.S. Supreme Court finds a law excluding African Americans from juries unconstitutional in Strauder v. West Virginia.

1884 Belva Lockwood, presidential candidate of the National Equal Rights Party, becomes the first woman to receive votes in a presidential election.

1887 The U.S. Senate debates and defeats the woman suffrage amendment.

Utah women lose the suffrage rights granted them in 1870.

1889 Jane Addams opens Hull House in Chicago.

1890 The National American Woman Suffrage Association is formed by the merger of the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association.

The General Federation of Women’s Clubs is founded.

Wyoming becomes the first state to grant women full voting rights.

1893 The National Council of Jewish Women is founded.

Colorado women gain suffrage rights.

Mary Elizabeth Lease is the first female candidate for the U.S. Senate, running on the Populist Party ticket.

Laura J. Eisenhuth becomes the first woman elected to statewide office when she is elected North Dakota’s superintendent of public instruction.

1894 Clara Cressingham, Carrie C. Holly, and Frances Klock, all Republicans, are elected to serve in the Colorado House of Representatives, the first women elected to serve in a state legislature.

1895 The National Federation of Afro-American Women is founded.

Utah grants women suffrage in its constitution.

1896 The National Association of Colored Women is founded.

Idaho women gain suffrage rights.

The first woman state senator in the nation, Martha Hughes, is elected to the Utah legislature.

1899 The National Consumers League is founded.

1900 The first official women delegates (one each) attend the Democratic National Convention and Republican National Convention.

1907 The Women’s Trade Union League is founded.

1908 The Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority is founded.

The U.S. Supreme Court decides that “sex is a valid basis for classification” in employment and that protective legislation is constitutional in Muller v. Oregon.

1909 The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is founded. 1910 Washington state grants women suffrage.

1911 The Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire in New York City takes 145 women employees’ lives and leads to the state legislature limiting the workweek to fifty-four hours and enacting a new industrial code.

California grants women suffrage.

1912 Congress creates the Children’s Bureau, and as its first director, Julia C. Lathrop is the first woman to head a major federal bureau.

Tye Leung is the first Asian American woman to vote in a presidential election, in California, which granted women the right to vote in 1911.

Kansas, Oregon, and Arizona grant women suffrage. The Progressive Party supports woman suffrage.

1913 Alice Paul and Lucy Burns form the Congressional Union, which later becomes the National Woman’s Party.

More than 3,000 suffragists parade in Washington, D.C., on the day before Woodrow Wilson’s presidential inauguration, drawing attention away from his arrival. The marchers are mobbed by spectators.

Ida B. Wells-Barnett founds the Alpha Suffrage Club.

Illinois women gain presidential suffrage by legislative action. Women in the Alaska Territory gain suffrage rights.

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority is founded.

1914 Annette Abbott Adams is appointed U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California, the highest judicial position ever held by any woman in the world.

Women in Montana and Nevada gain suffrage rights.

1915 The National Birth Control League is founded.

The Woman’s Peace Party is founded.

The U.S. House of Representatives votes on woman suffrage for the first time and defeats the measure.

1916 Margaret Sanger and Ethel Byrne open the first American birth control clinic and are arrested ten days after the opening.

Republicans add support for woman suffrage to their platform.

1917 Jeannette Rankin (R-MT) becomes the first woman to serve in the U.S. Congress.

Women in New York gain suffrage rights.

Women in North Dakota, Nebraska, and Rhode Island gain presidential suffrage by legislative action.

Women in Arkansas gain primary suffrage by legislative action.

1918 Kathryn Sellers becomes the first woman in the U.S. to hold a judgeship as she is named a judge in the juvenile court of Washington, D.C.

The U.S. House of Representatives passes the federal suffrage amendment. The U.S. Senate rejects the federal woman suffrage amendment by two votes. President Woodrow Wilson declares his support for woman suffrage.

Women in Michigan, Oklahoma and South Dakota gain suffrage rights. Women in Texas gain presidential suffrage by legislative action.

1919 The Democratic National Committee creates the position of associate member for women.

The U.S. Senate again rejects the federal suffrage amendment. President Woodrow Wilson pressures the Senate into passing the amendment. On June 4, the federal suffrage amendment passes and goes to states for ratification.

The League of Women Voters is founded.

The National Federation of Business and Professional Women is founded.

Women in Indiana, Maine, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Tennessee gain presidential suffrage by legislative acts.

1920 Congress establishes the Women’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor, and Mary Anderson becomes its first director.

Annette Abbott Adams is appointed the first female U.S. assistant attorney general.

The Democratic National Committee adopts the fifty-fifty plan and replaces associate members with national committeewomen.

The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, granting women full suffrage rights, is ratified on August 18 and signed on August 26.

1921 Margaret Sanger organizes the American Birth Control League.

Representative Alice Mary Robertson (R-OK) becomes the first woman to preside over a session of the U.S. House of Representatives.

The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom is founded. The American Association of University Women is formed.

Congress passes the Sheppard-Towner bill for maternal and infant health education.

1922 Emily Newell Blair becomes the first woman vice chair of the Democratic National Committee.

Rebecca Latimer Felton (D-GA) becomes the first woman sworn in to the U.S. Senate, an appointment that lasts only two days.

Florence Ellinwood Allen becomes the first woman to serve on a state supreme court when she is elected associate justice in Ohio.

Alice Brown Davis becomes the first woman tribal chief when she is appointed chief of the Seminole Nation by President Warren G. Harding.

The first Cable Act passes, giving married women in the United States citizenship independent of their husband’s citizenship.

1923 Representative Mae E. Nolan becomes the first woman to chair a standing congressional committee, the House Committee on Expenditures in the Post Office Department.

The U.S. Supreme Court decides in Adkins v. Children’s Hospital that a minimum wage for women and children is unconstitutional.

The first congressional hearings are held on a federal Equal Rights Amendment.

1924 Cora Reynolds Anderson is the first Native American woman elected to a state legislature when she enters Michigan’s House of Representatives.

The National League of Colored Republican Women is founded.

1925 Democrat Nellie Tayloe Ross is sworn in as governor of Wyoming on January 5, the first woman sworn in as a governor in the nation.

Democrat Miriam Ferguson is sworn in as governor of Texas on January 20.

Republican Cora Belle Reynolds Anderson, a La Pointe Band Chippewa, enters the Michigan House of Representatives, the first Native American woman elected to a state legislature.

1926 Bertha Knight Landes is the first woman elected mayor of a large city, Seattle, Washington.

Gertrude Bonnin, a Yankton Sioux, organizes the National Council of American Indians and becomes its founding president.

1928 Republican Minnie Buckingham Harper becomes the first African American woman to serve in a state legislature when West Virginia’s governor appoints her to the state’s House of Delegates.

Genevieve Cline of Ohio becomes the first female federal judge as a judge for the U.S. Customs Court.

1930 The Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching is founded.

1931 Democrat Fedelina Lucero Gallegos and Republican Porfirria H. Saiz enter the New Mexico House of Representatives, the first Hispanic American women elected to a state legislature.

Jane Addams becomes the first woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

1932 Senator Hattie Wyatt Caraway, appointed to the U.S. Senate in 1931, becomes the first woman elected to serve in the body.

The National Recovery Act includes a provision that allows only one family member to hold a government job. Many women lose their jobs.

1933 Frances Perkins becomes the first woman to serve in a president’s cabinet, when Franklin D. Roosevelt appoints her secretary of labor.

Democrat Miriam Ferguson begins her second term as governor of Texas.

Republican Minnie D. Craig of North Dakota becomes the first woman speaker of a state House of Representatives.

Ruth Bryan Owen (Rohde) is appointed head of the U.S. diplomatic mission to Denmark, making her the first woman to hold the position of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary.

1934 Florence Ellinwood Allen becomes the first woman to serve on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.dse

1935 Sadie Tanner Mosell Alexander helps write Pennsylvania’s public accommodations law prohibiting racial segregation.

Mary McLeod Bethune becomes director of Negro Affairs in the National Youth Administration, appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, making her the first African American woman to hold a major federal appointment.

Bethune also founds the National Council of Negro Women.

1936 A federal appeals court case, United States v. One Package of Japanese Pessaries, finds that birth control information is not obscene and that contraceptive devices can be legally imported into the United States.

1937 U.S. Representative Mary Teresa Norton (Democrat of New Jersey) becomes the first woman to chair a major congressional committee, the Labor Committee.

The U.S. Supreme Court reverses Adkins v. Children’s Hospital (1923) and finds establishing minimum wage laws for women constitutional in West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish.

1938 Democrat Crystal Bird Fauset becomes the first African American woman elected to a state legislature, the Pennsylvania legislature.

The National Federation of Republican Women is founded.

1939 Marian Anderson sings at the Lincoln Memorial.

Jane M. Brolin becomes the first African American woman to hold a judgeship in the United States when she is appointed to New York City’s Court of Domestic Relations.

The Birth Control Federation of America, which later becomes Planned Parenthood Federation of America, is founded.

1940 The Republican Party is the first major party to include the Equal Rights Amendment in its platform.

1941 Concha Ortiz Pino becomes the first Hispanic woman to hold a leadership position in a state legislature as the house majority whip in New Mexico.

1944 The National Committee to Defeat the UnEqual Rights Amendment is organized. 1946 Eleanor Roosevelt is the first female delegate to the United Nations, appointed by President Harry S. Truman.

1948 In Goesaert v. Cleary, the U.S. Supreme Court concludes that state laws can allow discrimination in employment on the basis of sex.

1949 Eugenie Moore Anderson is appointed the first female U.S. ambassador.

Georgia Neese Clark becomes the first woman treasurer of the United States and the first woman whose signature appears on U.S. currency.

Senator Margaret Chase Smith becomes the first woman elected to the U.S.Senate for a six-year term whose husband did not precede her in the Senate.

1951 Ambassador Eugenie Moore Anderson becomes the first woman to sign a treaty between the United States and another nation.

1952 Progressive Party vice presidential nominee Charlotta Spears Bass becomes the first African American woman to have her name appear on the national presidential ballot.

Cora M. Brown becomes the first African American woman elected to a state Senate, the Michigan Senate.

1953 Oveta Culp Hobby is appointed secretary of health, education, and welfare by President Dwight Eisenhower.

The Second Sex by French feminist Simone de Beauvoir is published in the United States.

1955 African American Rosa Parks refuses to relinquish her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus, is arrested, and launches a boycott of the city’s buses.

The Daughters of Bilitis is founded by Del Martin, Phyllis Lyons, and six other women.

1957 Patsy Takemoto Mink enters Hawaii’s territorial legislature, the first Asian American woman elected to a territorial or state legislature.

Daisy Bates helps integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.

1960 Ella Baker helps organize the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

1961 Elizabeth Gurley Flynn becomes the first woman chair of the Communist Party/USA.

Women Strike for Peace is founded.

In Hoyt v. Florida, the U.S. Supreme Court decides that an all-male jury does not violate an accused woman’s Fourteenth Amendment rights.

President John F. Kennedy creates the President’s Commission on the Status of Women.

1962 Dolores Huerta and César Chavez found the United Farm Workers of America.

Scientist Rachel Carson publishes Silent Spring and helps launch the environmental movement.

Democrat Patsy Takemoto Mink of Hawaii becomes the first Asian Pacific Islander woman elected to a state legislature.

1963 Betty Friedan publishes The Feminine Mystique and launches the modern feminist movement.

The Equal Pay Act of 1963 makes it illegal to have different rates of pay for women and men who do the same work.

The President’s Commission on the Status of Women issues its report, American Women.

1964 Congress passes the 1964 Civil Rights Act, including Title VII, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, race, creed, and national origin in employment.

Republican Margaret Chase Smith becomes the first woman to run for the presidential nomination of a major party.

Fannie Lou Hamer founds the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.

1965 In Griswold v. Connecticut, the U.S. Supreme Court overturns state laws prohibiting prescribing and use of contraceptives by married couples.

Representative Patsy Mink (D-HI) becomes the first Asian American woman to serve in the U.S. Congress.

Patricia Roberts Harris becomes the first African American woman appointed as a U.S. ambassador.

Lorna Lockwood is the first female chief justice of a state supreme court, in Arizona.

President Lyndon Johnson’s Executive Order 11246 requires federal agencies and federal contractors to take affirmative action to overcome employment discrimination. The measure does not include women.

1966 Constance Baker Motley becomes the first African American woman appointed as a federal judge.

Olga Madar becomes the first woman member of the International Executive Board of the United Auto Workers.

The National Organization for Women is founded.

1967 Democrat Lurleen Wallace becomes governor of Alabama.

The Chicago Women’s Liberation Group organizes. The Day Care Council of American is founded.

New York Radical Women is founded.

The National Welfare Rights Organization is founded.

Executive Order 11375 amends Executive Order 11246 and prohibits sex discrimination in employment by the federal government and its contractors.

The federal Civil Service Commission creates the Federal Women’s Program. California becomes the first state to legalize abortion.

1968 Barbara Watson becomes the first woman and the first African American appointed to an undersecretary position in the Department of State when President Lyndon Johnson names her assistant secretary of state.

Federally Employed Women is founded.

The first national Women’s Liberation Conference is held. The Women’s Equity Action League is founded.

New York Radical Women gains media attention for the women’s movement when its members protest the Miss America Pageant in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The group also begins using consciousness raising as a tool.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission rules that sex- segregated help-wanted newspaper advertising is illegal unless there is a bona fide occupational qualification.

1969 Representative Shirley Chisholm (D-NY) becomes the first African American woman to serve in Congress.

In Bowe v. Colgate-Palmolive Company the U.S. Supreme Court rules that women meeting the physical requirements can work in jobs that had been for men only.

A federal appeals court finds that sex is not a bona fide occupational qualification for the job of switchman in Weeks v. Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company.

The National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League is founded. The National Association of Commissions for Women is founded.

1970 LaDonna Harris founds Americans for Indian Opportunity.

Comisión Feminil Mexicana Nacional is founded.

Betty Friedan organizes the first Women’s Equality Day in recognition of the fiftieth anniversary of woman suffrage.

The Equal Rights Amendment is reintroduced in Congress. California passes the first no-fault divorce law in the nation.

1971 Anne L. Armstrong becomes the first woman national co-chair of the Republican National Committee.

Romana Acosta BaZuelos becomes the first Hispanic American U.S. treasurer. The National Women’s Political Caucus is founded.

Feminist Gloria Steinem co-founds Ms. magazine.

The Center for the American Woman and Politics at Rutgers University is founded.

New York Radical Feminists hold speak-outs and a conference on rape and women’s treatment by the criminal justice system.

In Phillips v. Martin Marietta, the U.S. Supreme Court decides its first gender discrimination case under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In Reed v. Reed, the U.S. Supreme Court creates an intermediate level of scrutiny that applies only to sex discrimination cases.

A federal appeals court finds that being female is not a bona fide occupational qualification for a flight attendant in Diaz v. Pan American World Airways, Inc.

1972 Representative Shirley Chisholm (D-NY) becomes the first African American woman to run for president and has her name formally placed in nomination at the Democratic National Convention.

Patsy Takemoto Mink is the first Asian American woman to run for the Democratic presidential nomination, in the Oregon primary.

Jean Westwood becomes chair of the Democratic National Committee, the first woman to chair either of the two major parties.

Republican Anne L. Armstrong becomes the first woman to deliver a keynote address at a major party national convention.

Stop ERA is founded by Phyllis Schlafly. Feminists for Life of America is founded.

The Ms. Foundation for Women is founded. Ms. magazine begins publication.

In Eisenstadt v. Baird the U.S. Supreme Court rules that the right to privacy includes an unmarried person’s right to use contraceptives.

Congress passes Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, outlawing sex discrimination in education programs receiving federal financial assistance.

Congress passes the Equal Opportunity Act, giving the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission authority to take legal action to enforce its rulings.

On March 22, Congress passes the federal Equal Rights Amendment and sends it to the states for ratification. By the end of the year, twenty-two of the necessary thirty-eight states ratify it.

National Women’s Law Center is founded.

1973 The U.S. Supreme Court finds prohibitions against sex-segregated help wanted ads do not violate First Amendment Rights in Pittsburgh Press Co. v. Pittsburgh Commission on Human Relations.

Anne Armstrong becomes the first woman counselor to the president, appointed by President Richard M. Nixon.

Representative Leonor K. Sullivan (D-MO) becomes chair of the House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries.

9to5, National Association of Working Women is founded. The Children’s Defense Fund is founded.

Catholics for a Free Choice is founded.

The National Right to Life Committee is founded.

The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice is founded. Congress passes the Women’s Educational Equity Act.

In Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court establishes a woman’s right to abortion.

Doe v. Bolton is decided at the same time.

The U.S. Supreme Court decides that family members of females in the armed services have the same rights to benefits as family members of males in the armed services in Frontiero v. Richardson.

Eight more states ratify the federal Equal Rights Amendment.

1974 Mary Louise Smith becomes chair of the Republican National Committee, the first woman to hold the post.

The first Filipina American women are elected to a state legislature, Democrat Thelma Garcia Buchholdt to the Alaska legislature and Republican Velma M. Santos to the Hawaii legislature.

March Fong becomes the first Asian American woman elected to a statewide office when she is elected California’s secretary of state.

Elaine Brown becomes the first woman chair of the Black Panther Party.

Elaine Noble becomes the first open lesbian elected to a state office when she wins her race for a seat in the Massachusetts legislature.

The Women’s Campaign Fund is founded.

The Alliance of Displaced Homemakers is founded. The Coalition of Labor Union Women is founded.

In Cleveland Board of Education v. LaFleur, the U.S. Supreme Court finds that some mandatory maternity leave policies violate the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The U.S. Supreme Court decides the first equal pay case, Corning Glass v. Brennan.

In Geduldig v. Aiello, the U.S. Supreme Court rejects an employed woman’s claim that her Fourteenth Amendment rights have been violated because California’s disability insurance program does not cover pregnancy.

The Fair Housing Act of 1968 is extended to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex.

The Equal Credit Opportunity Act prohibits sex discrimination in all consumer credit practices.

The Women’s Educational Equity Act funds the development of nonsexist teaching materials and model programs, nondiscriminatory career counseling, sports education, and related programs.

Three more states ratify the federal Equal Rights Amendment.

1975 Carla Hills is appointed secretary of housing and urban development by President Gerald Ford.

Democrat Ella Grasso becomes governor of Connecticut.

Susan Brownmiller publishes Against Our Will, a book that contributes to changes in rape legislation.

The Eagle Forum is founded.

MANA, a National Latina Organization, is founded.

The National Commission on the Observance of International Women’s Year is established.

In Taylor v. Louisiana, the U.S. Supreme Court decides that Louisiana’s exemptions for women from jury service violate the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments.

In Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld, the U.S. Supreme Court decides that denying Social Security benefits to a widower and the children of a deceased worker that would have been available to a widow and the children of a deceased worker violates the due process clause.

California passes the nation’s first Displaced Homemaker Act. One more state ratifies the federal Equal Rights Amendment.

1976 Representative Barbara Jordan (D-TX) becomes the first woman and first African American to deliver a keynote speech at a Democratic National Convention.

Representative Corinne Claiborne (Lindy) Boggs (D-LA) becomes the first woman chair of a Democratic National Convention.

ERAmerica is founded to serve as a national bipartisan political organization to coordinate ratification of the federal Equal Rights Amendment.

In Craig v. Boren, the U.S. Supreme Court finds unconstitutional Oklahoma’s law establishing different ages for men and women to legally purchase beer.

In Planned Parenthood of Central Missouri v. Danforth, the U.S. Supreme Court rejects parts and accepts parts of a Missouri abortion law.

The U.S. Supreme Court decides in Bellotti v. Baird that in some circumstances states may require a minor woman to obtain parental consent before having an abortion.

The U.S. Supreme Court finds in General Electric v. Gilbert that excluding pregnancy from a disability plan does not violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

1977 The U.S. Supreme Court rejects traditional assumptions about women’s economic roles, particularly regarding survivors’ Social Security benefits in Califano v. Goldfarb. The Court removed the requirement that female workers provide 75 percent of the family income in order for the surviving spouse to receive benefits.

The U.S. Supreme Court finds the death penalty a disproportionate penalty for rape in Coker v. Georgia.

The National Center for Lesbian Rights is founded.

Patricia Roberts Harris is appointed secretary of housing and urban development and becomes the first African American woman to hold a federal cabinet position.

Juanita Kreps is appointed secretary of commerce by President Jimmy Carter. Democrat Dixy Lee Ray becomes governor of Washington.

Margaret (Midge) Costanza becomes the first woman assistant to the president.

Eleanor Holmes Norton becomes the first woman to chair the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Mari-Luci Jaramillo is the first Hispanic American woman to serve as a U.S. ambassador, appointed by President Jimmy Carter.

Patsy Takemoto Mink becomes the first Asian American woman to serve as assistant secretary of state, appointed by President Jimmy Carter.

The Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues is founded as the Congresswomen’s Caucus.

The National Women’s Conference is held in Houston, Texas.

In Dothard v. Rawlinson, the U.S. Supreme Court considers bona fide occupational qualifications and finds that height and weight restrictions have a greater impact on women than men, but that gender could be considered for certain prison guard jobs.

In Nashville Gas Company v. Satty, the U.S. Supreme Court decides that denying seniority to women returning to work after a forced pregnancy leave violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In Beal v. Doe, the U.S. Supreme Court decides that Pennsylvania’s Medicaid program does not have to pay for non-therapeutic abortions.

In Poelker v. Doe, the U.S. Supreme Court decides that hospitals owned by cities have no constitutional obligation to perform non-therapeutic abortions.

In Carey v. Population Services International, the U.S. Supreme Court rejects New York’s law limiting access to contraceptives.

The U.S. Supreme Court finds constitutional a Connecticut regulation limiting Medicaid payments for first-trimester abortions to those considered medically necessary, in Maher v. Roe.

One more state ratifies the federal Equal Rights Amendment.

1978 The U.S. Supreme Court finds that discrimination on the basis of sex regarding private pension plans unconstitutional in Los Angeles Department of Water and Power v. Manhart.

Carolyn Robertson Payton becomes the first woman and first African American to head the U.S. Peace Corps, appointed by President Jimmy Carter.

Jean Sadako King of Hawaii becomes the first Asian American woman elected lieutenant governor in the United States.

The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence is founded. The Older Women’s League is founded.

The National Women’s Conference Committee is organized. Concerned Women for America is founded.

In Bakke v. Regents of the University of California, the U.S. Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of affirmative action plans.

Congress passes the Pregnancy Discrimination Act.

President Jimmy Carter establishes the National Advisory Committee for Women.

An extension for the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment passes Congress.

1979 The U.S. Supreme Court finds that jury selection processes that allow women to easily decline jury service unconstitutional in Duren v. Missouri.

The U.S. Supreme Court finds a policy discriminating between mothers and fathers in providing welfare benefits unconstitutional in Califano v. Westcott.

Patricia Roberts Harris is appointed secretary of health and human services by President Jimmy Carter.

The American Life League is founded.

Polly Baca becomes the first Hispanic American woman to serve in a state Senate when she is elected in Colorado.

Suffragist Susan B. Anthony becomes the first woman depicted on an American coin.

In Orr v. Orr, the U.S. Supreme Court finds that Alabama divorce laws providing that husbands, but not wives, may be required to pay alimony are unconstitutional.

In Personnel Administrator of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Feeney, the U.S. Supreme Court finds Massachusetts’s veterans’ preference law constitutional.

In Colautti v. Franklin, the U.S. Supreme Court finds unconstitutionally vague a Pennsylvania law requiring physicians performing abortions to use the method most likely to preserve the life and health of a fetus thought to be viable.

1980 Shirley Hufstedler is appointed secretary of education by President Jimmy Carter.

Eunice Sato becomes the first Asian American woman elected mayor of a large city, Long Beach, California.

The gender gap appears in presidential elections when fewer women than men vote for Republican Ronald Reagan.

In Harris v. McRae the U.S. Supreme Court decides that states are not required to pay for medically necessary abortions under their Medicaid plans.

In Williams v. Zbaraz, the U.S. Supreme Court finds that states are not required to pay for medically necessary abortions that are not covered by Medicaid.

In McCarty v. McCarty, the U.S. Supreme Court finds that military retirement pay is the personal entitlement of the retiree and that states cannot allocate it to former spouses as part of a divorce settlement.

1981 The U.S. Supreme Court finds male-only draft registration constitutional in Rostker v. Goldberg

Jeane J. Kirkpatrick is appointed ambassador to the United Nations by President Ronald Reagan.

Sandra Day O’Connor is appointed to the United States Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagan and becomes the first woman appointed to the Court.

Katherine D. Ortega becomes U.S. treasurer.

The National Coalition of 100 Black Women is founded.

In Kirchberg v. Feenstra, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidates a Louisiana law designating a husband head and master having unilateral control of property jointly owned with his wife.

The U.S. Supreme Court decides in County of Washington, Oregon v. Gunther that employees can claim they have been undercompensated when compared to other employees, even though they do not do the same work.

The Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues introduces the Economic Equity Act.

1982 Roy M. Vesta serves as governor of New Hampshire from December 29, 1982 to 1983.

In Mississippi University for Women v. Hogan, the U.S. Supreme Court decides that a state law excluding men from a state-supported nursing school violates the Fourteenth Amendment.

The extension for ratification of the federal Equal Rights Amendment expires. Three more states were needed for the amendment to be included in the U.S. Constitution.

1983 Margaret Heckler is appointed secretary of health and human services and Elizabeth Dole is appointed secretary of transportation.

In Planned Parenthood Association of Kansas City, Mo. v. Ashcroft, the U.S. Supreme Court rejects some parts and accepts some parts of a Missouri abortion law.

In Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health, the U.S. Supreme Court finds unconstitutional the several provisions of a city ordinance related to abortion, including the requirements that physicians tell patients seeking an abortion that life begins at conception, and that minor women seeking abortions had to obtain parental consent.

1984 Democrat Geraldine Ferraro becomes the first woman nominated by a major party for vice president.

Democrat Martha Layne Collins becomes governor of Kentucky.

Katherine D. Ortega, U.S. treasurer, becomes the first Hispanic American to keynote a national convention of a major political party at the Republican National Convention.

Valerie Terrigno becomes the first openly lesbian mayor in the United States when she is elected in West Hollywood, California.

The National Political Congress of Black Women is founded by Shirley Chisholm.

In Grove City v. Bell, the U.S. Supreme Court decides that Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 applies only to the program within an educational institution receiving federal funds and not to the entire institution.

In Hishon v. King and Spalding, the U.S. Supreme Court decides that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 covers partners in a partnership.

In H. L. v. Matheson, the U.S. Supreme Court decides that a Utah law requiring a minor woman to notify her parents before obtaining an abortion is constitutional.

The Black Women’s Health Imperative is founded.

The U.S. Supreme Court finds that the state has a compelling interest in ending discrimination on the basis of sex in Roberts v. United States Jaycees.

Representative Lynn Morley Martin (Republican, Illinois) becomes vice chair of the House Republican Conference, the first time a woman is elected to a position in the congressional party’s hierarchy.

1985 Democrat Madeleine Kunin becomes governor of Vermont.

Wilma Mankiller becomes the first woman elected principal chief of a major Native American tribe.

The Council of Presidents is formed.

The National Organization of Black Elected Legislative Women is founded. EMILY’s List is founded to elect pro-choice Democratic women candidates.

1986 In Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, the U.S. Supreme Court makes its first decision regarding sexual harassment and concurs with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s definition of a hostile work environment and that sexual harassment is a form of sexual discrimination.

In Thornburgh v. American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the U.S. Supreme Court rejects provisions of a Pennsylvania abortion law.

The U.S. Supreme Court finds constitutional a Georgia law categorizing sodomy as a criminal act in Bowers v. Hardwick.

Operation Rescue is founded.

1987 Ann Dore McLaughlin is appointed secretary of labor by President Ronald Reagan.

Republican Kay Orr becomes governor of Nebraska, the first Republican woman governor in the nation.

Dorothy Comstock Rile of Michigan becomes the first Hispanic female chief justice of a state supreme court.

Joy Cherian becomes the first Asian American to sit on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, appointed by President Ronald Reagan.

The Feminist Majority is founded.

Susan Estrich is the first woman to head a major presidential campaign, for Democrat Michael Dukakis.

In California Savings and Loan v. Guerra, the U.S. Supreme Court decides that California’s law for disability leave for pregnant workers does not conflict with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In Johnson v. Transportation Agency, Santa Clara County, the U.S. Supreme Court finds constitutional an affirmative action plan for women.

An appeals court finds constitutional the Democratic Party’s equal division rule, designed to promote greater representation of women and minorities in state delegations to national party conventions, in Bachur v. Democratic National Committee.

1988 Democrat Rose Mofford becomes governor of Arizona.

Susan Estrich becomes the first woman to head a major presidential campaign when Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis chooses her for the position.

Lenora Fulani of New York is the first African American woman to appear on the presidential ballot in all fifty states, on the National Alliance Party ticket.

Elaine Chao becomes the first Asian American woman to chair a federal commission, the Federal Maritime Commission, appointed by President Ronald Reagan.

Juanita Kidd Stout of Pennsylvania becomes the first African American woman appointed to a state supreme court.

National Gender Balance Project USA is founded.

The Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1988 overturns the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Grove City v. Bell.

Carla Anderson Hills is appointed special trade representative, and Elizabeth Hanford Dole is appointed secretary of labor, by President George Bush.

Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) becomes the first Hispanic American woman to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Joyce Kennard becomes the first Asian American woman to sit on a state supreme court when she is appointed in California.

Julia Chang Bloch becomes the first Asian American woman U.S. ambassador, appointed by President George Bush.

The Christian Coalition is founded.

In a sex discrimination case, Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, the U.S. Supreme Court decides that when an employer considers sex in employment, it is not in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, if the employer would make the same decision without considering the employee’s sex.

In Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, the U.S. Supreme Court affirms the rights of states to deny public funding for abortions and to prohibit public hospitals from performing abortions.

1990 Antonia Novello becomes the first woman and the first Hispanic American U.S. Surgeon General.

In Hodgson v. Minnesota the U.S. Supreme Court upholds the requirement that a minor woman notify both of her parents or obtain a judicial waiver before having an abortion.

In Ohio v. Akron Center, the U.S. Supreme Court decides that an Ohio law requiring a physician to notify the parents of a minor woman before performing an abortion is constitutional.

The Court rejects a parental notification measure that did not have the judicial bypass procedure.

The Women’s Health Equity Act is introduced.

1991 Representative Barbara Kennelly (Democrat, Connecticut) becomes the first woman in United States history to be appointed Chief Deputy Majority Whip.

Democrat Joan Finney becomes governor of Kansas. Democrat Ann Richards becomes governor of Texas. Democrat Barbara Roberts becomes governor of Oregon.

Lynn Morley Martin is appointed secretary of labor by President George Bush.

Patricia Saiki is appointed by President George Bush as head of the Small Business Administration, making her the first Asian American woman to head that department.

Anita Hill alleges that U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas sexually harassed her, leading to the Senate Judiciary Committee reopening the confirmation hearings. Sexual harassment receives public attention.

Minnesota becomes the first state to have a majority of female Supreme Court justices, with four out of seven justices being women.

In Rust v. Sullivan, the U.S. Supreme Court finds permissible regulations that forbid the discussion of abortion as an option at family planning centers that receive federal family planning funds.

In UAW v. Johnson Controls, the U.S. Supreme Court decides that refusing to hire women for certain jobs to protect them from workplace hazards violates the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978.

Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1991, part of which overturns Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins (1989).

The Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues introduces the Health Equity Act.

For the first time, at least one woman serves in every state legislature in the nation.

1992 In Franklin v. Gwinnett County Public Schools, the U. S. Supreme Court finds that found damages could be awarded to enforce Title IX.

Organizacion en California de Lideres Campesina is founded.

Barbara H. Franklin is appointed secretary of commerce by President George Bush.

Democrat Georgianna Lincoln, an Athabascan, becomes the first Native American woman elected to a state Senate, the Alaska Senate.

Leah Sears-Collins becomes the first African American woman elected to a state supreme court when she wins a seat in Georgia.

Irma Gonzalez, Lourdes Baird, and Sonia Sotomayor become the first female Hispanic Americans appointed as federal judges, in California and New York, respectively.

In Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, the U.S. Supreme Court discards the trimester framework that it established in Roe v. Wade.

1993 Janet Reno becomes the first woman to serve as U.S. Attorney General.

Representative Nancy L. Johnson (Republican, Connecticut) becomes the first woman elected secretary of the House Republican Conference.

Representative Rosa DeLauro (Democrat, Connecticut) becomes the first woman elected secretary of the House Democratic Conference.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg is appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton.

California becomes the first state to have two female U.S. senators serving simultaneously, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer.

Carol Moseley-Braun is the first African American woman sworn in to the U.S. Senate.

Sheila Widnall becomes the first woman secretary of the Air Force.

Joycelyn Elders becomes the first African American woman U.S. Surgeon General.

Alice Rivlin is appointed director of the Office of Management and Budget, Carol M. Browner is appointed administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Donna Shalala is appointed secretary of health and human services, African American Hazel O is appointed secretary of energy, and Janet Reno is appointed U.S. attorney general by President Bill Clinton.

Native American Ada Deer becomes the first woman assistant secretary for Indian affairs in the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Roberta Achtenberg is the first open lesbian to serve in a subcabinet position, as assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, appointed by President Bill Clinton.

In Bray v. Alexandria Clinic, the U.S. Supreme Court finds that the Civil Rights Acts of 1871 does not cover protest actions at abortion clinics.

In Harris v. Forklift Systems, the U.S. Supreme Court decides that an employee does not need to show serious psychological damage or other injury to prove sexual harassment.

President Bill Clinton signs the Family and Medical Leave Act.

For the first time, at least one woman serves in both chambers of every state legislature and in Nebraska’s unicameral legislature.

1994 In J.E.B. v. Alabama ex rel T.B., the U.S. Supreme Court finds discrimination in jury selection unconstitutional.

Christine Todd Whitman becomes governor of New Jersey.

Alaska is the first state to have both legislative chambers headed by women, with Gail Phillips as speaker of the House and Drue Pearce as Senate president pro tem.

Deborah Batts is the first openly lesbian federal judge appointed, in the U.S. District Court in New York.

Marcy Kahn becomes the first openly lesbian state supreme court justice in the United States when she is elected to New York’s Supreme Court.

In NOW v. Scheidler, the U.S. Supreme Court decides that the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Statute applies to anti-abortion groups.

The Violence Against Women Act funds services for victims of rape and domestic violence, allows women to seek civil rights remedies for gender related crimes, provides training to increase police and court officials’ sensitivity, and funds a national twenty-four-hour hotline for battered women.

Congress passes the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.

1995 Laura D’Andrea Tyson is appointed chair of the National Economic Council by President Bill Clinton.

Women’s Policy, Inc. is founded.

1996 Council of Women World Leaders is founded.

In United States v. Virginia, the U.S. Supreme Court decides that the male only admissions policy of Virginia Military Institute violates the Fourteenth Amendment.

1997 Susan B. Anthony List is founded.

Aida Alvarez is appointed administrator of the Small Business Administration, Charlene Barshefsky is appointed U.S. trade representative, Alexis M. Herman is appointed secretary of labor, and Madeleine Albright is appointed secretary of state, the first woman to hold the position, by President Bill Clinton.

Jeanne Shaheen becomes governor of New Hampshire. Jane Dee Hull becomes governor of Arizona.

In Clinton v. Jones, the U.S. Supreme Court decides that the Constitution does not prohibit a private citizen from suing a sitting president for acts committed before becoming president.

1998 In Burlington Industries v. Ellerth, the U.S. Supreme Court holds that an employer can be held liable for a sexually hostile work environment, even when the employee did not suffer a reduction in job status.

Arizona becomes the first state with an all-female executive cabinet (governor, secretary of state, attorney general, treasurer, and superintendent of public instruction).

Republican Althea Garrison is elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, the first transgender or transsexual person to serve in a state legislature. After the election, she is outed against her will.

1999 The U.S. Supreme Court finds in Davis v. Monroe county Board of Education that schools receiving federal financial assistance can be liable for damages when they refuse to act in cases of student-on-student sexual harassment.

Women Under Forty Political Action Committee is founded.

Representative Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) becomes the first openly lesbian or gay person elected to Congress as a non-incumbent.

2000 The U.S. Supreme Court finds a Nebraska law banning partial birth abortions unconstitutional because it “places an undue burden” upon a woman seeking an abortion in Stenberg, Attorney General of Nebraska, et.al. v. Carhart.

The U.S. Supreme Court finds a provision, granting access to federal courts, of the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 unconstitutional in United States v. Morrison.

American Women Presidents, a political action committee, is founded. Women of Color Policy Network is founded.

WomenHeart: The National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease is founded.

2001 In Ferguson v. City of Charleston the U.S. Supreme Court finds that testing urine samples from pregnant women, collected as part of their prenatal care, for illegal drug use is unconstitutional.

The U.S. Supreme Court decides in Stenberg, Attorney General of Nebraska v. Carhart that Nebraska’s partial birth abortion ban is unconstitutional because it put an undue burden upon a woman’s right to make an abortion decision.

Elaine Chao is appointed Secretary of Labor, Gale Norton is appointed Secretary of the Interior, Ann Veneman is appointed Secretary of Agriculture by President George W. Bush.

Representative Nancy Pelosi (Democrat, California) becomes the highest-ranking woman in congressional history when she is elected House Democratic Whip.

Judy Martz becomes governor of Montana.

Sila Calderón becomes governor of Puerto Rico. Ruth Ann Minner becomes governor of Delaware. Jane Swift becomes governor of Massachusetts.

2002 Code Pink is founded.

The Future PAC is founded.

2003 In Gratz v. Bollinger, the U.S. Supreme Court finds the affirmative action policy at the University of Michigan’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts unconstitutional because it granted every minority applicant a significant advantage in admissions.

In Grutter v. Bollinger, the U. S. Supreme Court finds that the affirmative action admissions policy at the University of Michigan Law School constitutional because was narrow in its scope.

Jenniger Granholm becomes governor of Michigan. Linda Lingle becomes governor of Hawaii.

Janet Napolitano becomes governor of Arizona. Kathleen Sebelius becomes governor of Kansas. Olene Walker becomes governor of Utah.

Congress passes and President George W. Bush signs the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003.

Linda Sanchez (Democrat of California) joins her sister Loretta Sanchez (Democrat of California) in the U.S. House of Representatives. For the first time, two sisters served together in the House.

2004 In Pennsylvania State Police v. Suders, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that intolerable levels of sexual harassment may leave an employee with no option except to quit her job, even though she has not followed internal procedures for filing a sexual harassment claim.

Jodi M. Rell becomes governor of Connecticut. Kathleen Blanco becomes governor of Louisiana.

2005 President George W. Bush appoints Condoleezza Rice Secretary of State and Margaret Spellings Secretary of Education.

In Castle Rock v. Goldfarb, the U.S. Supreme Court finds that domestic violence victims do not have an entitlement to the enforcement of restraining orders.

Christine Gregoire becomes governor of the state of Washington.

2006 In Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. White, the U.S. Supreme Court found that suspending an employee in retaliation for filing a Title VII complaint is in violation of the provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

President George W. Bush appointed Susan Schwab U.S. Trade Representative and Mary E. Peters Secretary of Transportation.

The “Me Too” Movement is founded to offer survivors of sexual violence a pathway to healing. The movement explodes on social media as #metoo in 2017.

2007 Representative Nancy Pelosi (Democrat of California) becomes the first woman Speaker of the U.S. House.

In Long Island Care at Home v. Coke, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that it is constitutional for home care providers to exclude their employees from minimum wage and overtime laws.

The U.S. Supreme Court finds that employees may not sue for pay discrimination after their first 180 days of employment, regardless of when they discover the discrimination in Lilly M. Ledbetter, Petitioner v. The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, Inc.

Sarah Palin is elected governor of Alaska.

2008 Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton becomes the first woman to a state primary (New Hampshire) for the purposes of delegate selection. She also became the first woman to be a presidential candidate in every state.

Republican Sarah Palin becomes the first woman candidate for Vice President of the United States on the Republican ticket.

2009 In his first bill signing as President, Barack Obama signs the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009.

Sonia Sotomayor becomes the first Hispanic woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.

President Barack Obama creates the White House Council on Women and Girls to address the challenges confronting the nation’s women.

President Barack Obama appoints Christina D. Romer Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, Hilda Solis Secretary of Labor, Kathleen Sebilius Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Susan E. Rice U.N. Ambassador. He also appointed Janet Napolitano Secretary of Homeland Security, Lisa Jackson Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and Hillary Rodham Clinton Secretary of State.

Beverly Perdue becomes governor of North Carolina. Jan Brewer succeeds Arizona’s incumbent governor, who resigned, and becomes governor of Arizona.

2010 Elena Kagan was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Barack Obama, making him the first president to appoint two women to the nation’s highest court. Kagan became the fourth woman to serve on it.

2011 The U.S. Supreme Court concludes, in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes et al, that local Wal-Mart managers are independent and thus deny the attempt to convert three women’s pay discrimination lawsuit into a class action.

Mary Fallin becomes governor of Oklahoma. Nikki Haley becomes governor of South Carolina and Susana Martinez is elected governor of New Mexico; the two women are the first women of color elected governor of a state.

2012 President Barack Obama appoints Karen G. Mills Administrator of the Small Business Administration and Rebecca Blank Acting Secretary of Commerce.

2013 The Pentagon lifts its ban on women serving in combat, opening hundreds of thousands of front-line positions.

Maggie Hassan becomes governor of New Hampshire.

President Barack Obama appoints Sylvia Matthews Burwell Director of the Office of Management and Budget

President Barack Obama appoints Sally Jewell Secretary of the Interior.

President Barack Obama appoints Penny Pritzker Secretary of Commerce.

President Barack Obama appoints Gina McCarthy Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

President Barack Obama appoints Samantha Power Ambassador to the United Nations.

2014 Democrat Maura Healey is elected Massachusetts attorney general, the first openly gay state attorney general in the United States, as well as the first openly gay woman to be elected to any statewide office in the country.

President Barack Obama appoints Maria Contreras-Sweet Administrator of the Small Business Administration.

President Barack Obama appoints Sylvia Matthews Burwell Secretary of Health and Human Services.

2015 President Barack Obama appoints Loretta Lynch Attorney General.

Mia Love of Utah becomes the first Black Republican woman in Congress.

Democrat Kate Brown becomes the first openly bisexual governor and the first openly LGBT person at the time of taking the governor’s office.

Democrat Gina Raimondo becomes governor of Rhode Island.

2016 Hillary Rodham Clinton becomes the first female presidential nominee for a major party (Democratic Party). She wins the popular vote by almost 3 million votes, but loses the Electoral College.

2017 Republican Kay Ivey is elected lieutenant governor of Alabama.

Republican Kim Reynolds is elected lieutenant governor of Iowa

Democrat Danica Roem of Virginia becomes the first openly transgender person elected to a state legislature, twenty-five years after Althea Garrison’s election and nonconsensual outing.

Democrat Crista Duran becomes speaker of the Colorado General Assembly, the first Latina to lead either house of a state legislature.

The Women’s March, a worldwide protest against newly elected President Donald Trump, is the largest single day protest in American history.

President Donald Trump appoints Linda McMahon Administrator of the Small Business Administration.

President Donald Trump appoints Elaine Chao Secretary of Transportation.

President Donald Trump appoints Nikki Haley Ambassador to the United Nations.

President Donald Trump appoints Betsy DeVos Secretary of Education.

President Donald Trump appoints Kirstjen Nielsen Secretary of Homeland Security.

2018 Democrat Sharice Davids of Kansas and Democrat Deb Haaland of New Mexico become the first Native American women elected to Congress.

Democrat Iljan Omar of Minnesota and Democrat Rashida Tlaib of Michigan become the first Muslim women elected to Congress.

Michele Lujan Grisham of New Mexico becomes the first Democratic woman of color elected governor in the nation.

2019 As states across the nation introduce increasingly restrictive abortion laws, women resist the infringements on their constitutional right by using social media to tell their stories using #youknowme to connect.

Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) becomes Speaker of the House of Representatives for the second time.

Nevada becomes the first state to have women hold a majority of legislative seats.

Democrat Lori Lightfoot becomes the first female African American elected mayor of Chicago.

Democrat Laura Kelly becomes governor of Kansas.

Democrat Michele Lujan Grisham becomes governor of New Mexico

Democrat Janet Mills becomes governor of Maine.

Republican Kristi Noem becomes governor of South Dakota.

Democrat Gretchen Whitmer becomes governor of Michigan.