Publisher’s Note

Editor’s Introduction

Contributors

Complete Table of Contents

ACTIVISM

Harriet Tubman Escapes to Freedom

Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr Open Chicago’s Hull-House

Molly Brown, Titanic Survivor, Philanthropist, Suffragist

Rosa Parks Is Arrested for Refusing to Sit in the Back of the Bus

Freedom Day: Annie Lee Cooper Tries to Register to Vote

Karen Silkwood Becomes a Symbol for the Antinuclear Movement

Two Founders of Peace People Receive the Nobel Peace Prize

Thomas-Hill Hearings

Tailhook Scandal Erupts

Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA)

Million Woman March

Germany Legalizes Prostitution and Brothels

Over 800,000 People Participate in the March for Women’s Lives

#MeToo Movement Launched

Malala Yousafzai Wins Nobel Peace Prize

Women’s March of 2017

Christine Blasey Ford: Brett Kavanaugh Confirmation Hearings

Zohra, Afghanistan’s All-Female Orchestra, Goes into Hiding

THE CULTURE OF THE HOME FOR WOMEN

Rise of Courtly Love

Electric Washing Machine Is Introduced

Paul Poiret’s Hobble Skirt Becomes the Rage

Juliette Gordon Low Founds the Girl Scouts

Emily Post Publishes Etiquette

Bikini Swimsuit Is Introduced

Christian Dior’s “New Look” Sweeps Europe and America

Simon de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex Anticipates the Women’s Movement

Women and the Roots of the Feminist Movement

Betty Crocker Cookbooks Debut

Earl Tupper Adopts Home-Sales Strategy for Tupperware

Establishment of Māori Women’s Welfare League

Barbie Dolls Debut

Erma Bombeck’s Humor Column Syndicated

Mary Quant Introduces the Miniskirt

Disposable Diapers Are Introduced to U.S. Market

Sex and the Single Girl Published

The Feminine Mystique Published

World Conference on Women Sets an International Agenda

National Women’s Conference Convenes

Mommy Track Controversy

“Soccer Moms” Emerge as a Political Bloc

EDUCATION

Hartford Female Seminary Is Founded

Oberlin College Opens

Mount Holyoke Female Seminary Opens

Elizabeth Blackwell Receives Medical Degree

Vassar College Opens

Women’s Institutes Are Founded in Great Britain

Alice Hamilton Becomes First Professor at Harvard Medical School

Mary McLeod Bethune Founds Bethune-Cookman College

National Council of Negro Women Founded

LITERATURE, ENTERTAINMENT, JOURNALISM, AND THE ARTS

Enheduanna Becomes First Named Author

Greek Poet Sappho Dies

Sei Shōnagon Completes The Pillow Book

Murasaki Shikibu Writes The Tale of Genji

Compilation of the Wise Sayings of Lal Ded

Izumo no Okuni Stages the First Kabuki Dance Dramas

Women First Appear on the English Stage

Wollstonecraft Publishes A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Stowe Publishes Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Gustave Flaubert Publishes Madame Bovary

A Doll’s House Introduces Modern Realistic Drama

Annie Oakley Joins Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show

Ida B. Wells-Barnett Publishes Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases

Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Author, Educator

Ida Tarbell Investigates Standard Oil Company

Isadora Duncan Establishes School of Dance

Gertrude Stein Holds Her First Paris Salons

Emma Goldman Publishes Mother Earth

Anna Pavlova Performs The Dying Swan

Mary Pickford Reigns as “America’s Sweetheart”

Films in the 1910s

Harriet Monroe Founds Poetry Magazine

Bass, Charlotta Spears Edits and Publishes The California Eagle

Agatha Christie’s The Mysterious Affair at Styles Introduces Hercule Poirot

First Miss America Is Crowned

Baker Dances in La Revue Nègre

Billie Holiday Begins Her Recording Career

Josephine Baker, the First Black Movie Star, Zouzou

Pearl S. Buck Receives the Nobel Prize in Literature

Marian Anderson’s Lincoln Memorial Concert

Wonder Woman Comic First Appears

I Love Lucy Dominates Television Comedy

Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap Begins a Record-Breaking Run

Marilyn Monroe Climbs to Stardom

Sylvia Plath’s The Colossus Voices Women’s Experience

Diahann Carroll Becomes the First African American Woman to Star as a Non-domestic on Television

The Mary Tyler Moore Show Examines Women’s Roles

Ms. Magazine Debuts

Françoise D’Eaubonne Coins the Term “Ecofeminism”

Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls... Presents the Black Female Psyche

The Hite Report Published

The Woman Warrior Published

Marguerite Yourcenar Becomes the First Woman Elected to the Académie Française

Vanessa Williams Is the First Miss America to Resign

Xena: Warrior Princess Debuts

Oprah Winfrey Broadcasts her Final Talk Show

MATHEMATICS, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY

Mathematician and Philosopher Hypatia Is Killed in Alexandria

Maria Agnesi Publishes Analytical Institutions

Women in Mathematics

Women in Technology in the United States

Marie Curie Wins Nobel Prize

Henrietta Swan Leavitt Discovers How to Measure Galactic Distances

Annie Jump Cannon Classifies the Stars

Dorothy Hodgkin Solves the Structure of Penicillin

First Woman to Fly Faster Than Speed of Sound

Grace Murray Hopper Invents the Computer Language COBOL

Mary and Louis Leakey Find a 1.75-Million-Year-Old Fossil Hominid

Rachel Carson Publishes Silent Spring

Valentina Tereshkova Becomes First Woman in Space

Jocelyn Bell Discovers Pulsars

Katherine Johnson Guides Apollo 13 Astronauts Home

Lesley Brown Gives Birth to the First “Test-Tube Baby”

Women Admitted to Astronaut Corps

First Successful Human Embryo Transfer

Sally Ride Becomes First American Woman in Space

Two Women Walk in Space

Mae Carol Jemison Becomes First Black Woman in Space

First Woman to Command a Space Mission

All-U.S. Woman Spacewalk

MILITARY

Trung Sisters Lead Vietnamese Rebellion Against Chinese

Boudicca Leads Revolt Against Roman Rule

Joan of Arc’s Relief of Orléans

Richmond Underground during the Civil War

Women in the French Resistance in World War II

U.S. Army Auxiliary Corps Founded

Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) Founded

Mary A. Hallaren, First U.S. Army Officer

Women’s Military Roles Expand

Congress Votes to Admit Women to the Armed Services Academies

E-Mail Message Prompts Inquiry into Air Force Academy Sexual Assaults

U.S. Armed Forces Overturns 1994 Ban on Women Serving in Combat

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Rape of Lucretia

Lucrezia Borgia, Patron of Renaissance Culture

Elizabeth I Charters the East India Company

Susanna Salter Becomes First U.S. Woman Elected Mayor

Finland Elects Its First Female Members of Parliament

Jeannette Rankin Becomes First Woman Elected to the U.S. Congress

First Woman Is Seated in the British House of Commons

The League of Women Voters Is Founded

Maud Wood Park, First President of League of Women Voters

Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming Becomes the First Female Governor

Frances Perkins Becomes First Woman Secretary of Labor

Australians Elect First Women to Parliament

Margaret Chase Smith, First Woman Elected to Both Houses of Congress

Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka Becomes the World’s First Female Prime Minister

Indira Gandhi Serves as India’s First Female Prime Minister

Shirley Chisholm Becomes First African American Woman to Serve in Congress

Golda Meir Becomes Prime Minister of Israel

Barbara Jordan Becomes First Black Congresswoman from the South

Margaret Thatcher Becomes Great Britain’s First Female Prime Minister

Sandra Day O’Connor Becomes the First Female Supreme Court Justice

Geraldine Ferraro Joins Presidential Ticket

Indira Gandhi Is Assassinated

Kim Campbell Becomes Canada’s First Woman Prime Minister

Angela Merkel Becomes German Chancellor

Condolezza Rice is Sworn in as First Female, African American Secretary of State

Nancy Pelosi Becomes the First Woman to Serve as Speaker of the House of Representatives

Sonia Sotomayor Becomes the First Hispanic Justice to Sit on the US Supreme Court

Hillary Clinton Runs for President

Election of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Sanna Marin of Finland Becomes World’s Youngest Female Prime Minister

Kamala Harris Elected Vice President

RELIGION

Hildegard von Bingen Becomes Abbess

Lady Alice Kyteler Is Found Guilty of Witchcraft

Witch-Hunts and Witch Trials

Salem Witchcraft Trials

Pius IX Decrees the Immaculate Conception Dogma

Virgin Mary Appears to Bernadette Soubirous

Catherine and William Booth Establish the Salvation Army

Madame H. P. Blavatsky Co-founds Theosophical Society

Mary Baker Eddy Establishes the Christian Science Movement

Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson Claims She Was Kidnapped

Mother Cabrini Becomes the First U.S. Citizen Canonized as a Saint

Pius XII Proclaims the Doctrine of the Assumption

Mother Teresa Is Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

REPRODUCTION

Birth Control in Western Europe (1600s)

First Birth Control Clinic Opens in Amsterdam

National Birth Control League Forms

Margaret Sanger Opens the First Birth-Control Clinic in the United States

Margaret Sanger Organizes Conferences on Birth Control

Birth Control Pills Are Tested in Puerto Rico

FDA Approves the Birth Control Pill

Plastic IUD Developed for Birth Control

Griswold v. Connecticut: The Supreme Court Rules That State Cannot Ban Contraceptives

Roman Catholic Church Reaffirms Its Position Against Birth Control

Family Planning Services and Population Research Act Extends Reproductive Rights

Roe v. Wade Expands Reproductive Choice for American Women

Italy Legalizes Abortion

Anti-Abortion Groups Challenge Abortion Laws

NOW Sponsors a March for Abortion Rights

U.S. Supreme Court Upholds State Restrictions on Abortion

U.S. Supreme Court Restricts Abortion Rights

Gonzales v. Carhart Upholds Partial-Birth Abortion Ban

Supreme Court Strikes Down Strict Requirements for Abortion Clinics

Texas “Fetal Heartbeat” Law

SPORTS

First Women’s Golf Tournament

Harriet Quimby Becomes the First Woman to Fly Across the English Channel

Helen Wills Moody Wins Thirty-One Grand Slam Tennis Titles

Gertrude Ederle Swims the English Channel

First Transatlantic Solo Flight by a Woman

All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Formed

AP Names Babe Didrikson Zaharias Woman Athlete of the Half Century

International Women’s Cricket Council Is Founded

Wilma Rudolph Becomes the Fastest Woman in the World

Tennis’s Battle of the Sexes

First Woman Climbs Mount Everest

Nadia Comãneci Receives the First Perfect Score in Olympic Gymnastics

Joan Benoit Wins the First Olympic Women’s Marathon

FIFA Women’s World Cup

First Female European Matador

Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) Established

National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) Formed

Simone Biles Dominates Women’s Gymnastics

Sarah Thomas Becomes First Woman Referee in the Super Bowl

U.S. Women in “2020” Olympics

U.S. Women’s Soccer Contract Equals Men’s

TRAGEDIES

Rape of Nanjing

Kitty Genovese Dies as Her Cries for Help Are Ignored

Princess Diana Dies in a Car Crash

Boko Haram Kidnaps 276 Schoolgirls in Chibok, Nigeria

WOMEN MONARCHS

Queen of Sheba Legends Arise

Reign of Empress Wu

Reign of Raziya

Joan the Mad Becomes Queen of Castile

Coronation of Mary Tudor

Reign of Elizabeth I

Catherine de’ Medici and the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre

Maria Theresa Succeeds to the Austrian Throne

Catherine the Great’s Instruction

Queen Victoria’s Coronation

Hawaii’s Last Monarch Abdicates

Elizabeth II’s Coronation

WOMEN’S RIGHTS

Footbinding Develops in Chinese Society

Seneca Falls Convention

Akron Woman’s Rights Convention

Suffragists Protest the Fourteenth Amendment

Woman Suffrage Associations Begin Forming

Wyoming Gives Women the Vote

Susan B. Anthony Is Tried for Voting

Declaration of the Rights of Women

Women’s Rights Associations Unite

Colored Women’s League Founded

National Council of Women of Canada Is Founded

New Zealand Grants Universal Suffrage to Women

National Association of Colored Women Formed

Australia Extends Suffrage to Women

The Pankhursts Found the Women’s Social and Political Union

Finland Grants Woman Suffrage

International Congress of Women

Alice Paul, Co-founder of National Woman’s Party

Canadian Women Gain the Vote

National Woman’s Party Is Founded

Parliament Grants Suffrage to British Women

The Nineteenth Amendment Gives American Women the Right to Vote

Proposal of the Equal Rights Amendment

France Grants Suffrage to Women

Congress Passes War Brides Act

Japanese Constitution Grants New Rights to Women

Presbyterian and Methodist Churches Approve Ordination of Women

National Women’s Day (South Africa)

Canadian Bill of Rights Prohibits Sexual Discrimination

The National Organization for Women Forms to Protect Women’s Rights

Loving v. Virginia Decided

The United Nations Issues a Declaration on Equality for Women

Swiss Women Gain the Right to Vote

Women’s Equality Day

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972

ERA Passes Congress but Falls Short of Ratification

A U.N. Convention Condemns Discrimination Against Women

Women’s Rights in the 1980s

Supreme Court Rules that Laws Can Force Groups to Admit Women

Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins: U.S. Supreme Court Rules Gender-Role Stereotyping Is Discriminatory

Church of England Ordains Female Priests

Supreme Court Rejects Class-Action Sex-Discrimination Lawsuit Against Wal-Mart

Supreme Court Upholds Constitutional Bans on Preferences Based on Race, Ethnicity, or Sex

Obergefell v. Hodges: The United States Supreme Court Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage

WORKPLACE

Florence Nightingale Takes Charge of Nursing in the Crimea

The Bern Conference Prohibits Night Work for Women

Muller v. Oregon Is Decided

Sarah Rector Becomes “Richest Black Girl in the World”

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

Dorothy Reed Mendenhall, Medical Officer with U.S. Children’s Bureau

“Radium Girls”

United States Women’s Bureau

6.6 Million Women Enter the U.S. Labor Force

Women in the Workforce

Congress Passes the Equal Pay Act

Congress Passes the Equal Employment Opportunity Act

U.S. Congress Protects Pregnant Employees

Martha Stewart Is Convicted in Insider Trading Scandal

Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009

Mary Barra of General Motors Becomes First Female CEO of a Major Automotive Company

Alphabetical List of Events

Chronological List of Events

Geographical Index