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Jan 1, 1400
Matriarchy
This means that power in a society is derived from females and not males. This was widespread throughout Native American tribes. -
Anne Hutchinson
She was one of the first women to speak out on politics. Specifically, she challenged Puritan society and was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. -
Salem Witchcraft Trials
This occurred because people were accused of being witches. As a result, some people were hung. -
The enlightenment in Europe occurs
This was important in that a lot of people challenged society by using rationality. Some women introduced the idea that they should be treated equally as men by society. -
First Great Awakening
During this event, Protestant ministers stressed the need for individuals to repent and urged a personal understanding of truth. It was a reaction to the Enlightenment. -
Daughters of Liberty
This was an organization formed by women in order to protest the treatment of the colonies by the British. They were influential during the American Revolution. -
Abigail Adams
She was the wife of John Adams. She urged him to remember the ladies since he was on the committee that was designing the Declaration of Independence. -
Republican Motherhood
This was an idea that women should educate their children about Republican ideas. This led to women feeling important as they had social importance. -
Second Great Awakening
This was a series of religious revivals. It stressed salvation through good deeds and tolerance for all Protestant sects. -
Cult of Domesticity and Separate Spheres
These terms mean that women were very important in maintaining the house of the family. The men were expected to go to work and make money. -
Waltham-Lowell System
This was a system in which women worked at Lowell Mills. The women eventually protested against it as there were wage cuts and poor working conditions. -
Grimke Sisters
These sisters were very involved in the abolitionist movement. They were also involved in the women's rights movement. -
Dorothea Dix
She was very involved in reforming insane asylums. She persuaded many states to take responsibility for taking of the mentally ill. -
Feminism
This movement pushed the idea that women should be equal to men and should get suffrage. It began around the time that the Seneca Falls Convention was starting. -
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
She helped form the Seneca Falls Convention. She was an advocate for women's suffrage and was successful at getting it. -
Seneca Falls Convention
This is considered the first modern women's rights convention. At the convention, Elizabeth Cady Stanton read a Declaration of Sentiment, which listed the ways women were discriminated against and eleven resolutions. -
Susan B Anthony
She was a lecturer for women's rights. She was also very involved in the abolitionist movement. -
Lucy Stone
She was the first woman to receive a college degree and keep her maiden name in the United States, She was very involved in the abolitionist and women's rights movements. -
Women's Christian Temperance Union
This organization pushed for the prohibition of alcohol. It used women's supposedly purity and morality as a rallying point. -
Frances Willard
She advocated for women's rights and prohibition. She became the national president of the World Woman's Christian Temperance Union and helped get the 18th and 19th Amendments passed. -
Jane Addams
She was dedicated to uplifting the urban masses. She established the Hull House in Chicago. -
Ida B Wells
She urged African Americans to protest against lynchings. Also, she wanted African Americans to boycott segregated street cars and white owned stores. -
Florence Kelley
She was a leader in women's activism and social reform. Specifically, she wanted to improve working conditions for female workers and prohibit child labor. -
Carrie Chapman Catt
She was a supporter of the idea of women's suffrage. She devised a plan to get women suffrage and became the head of the National American Woman Suffrage. -
Carrie A. Nation
She destroyed saloons and bars with a hatchet. Some of her actions brought disrepute to the prohibition movement. -
Women's Trade Union League
This was an organization formed by working class women and very wealthy women. It was formed in order to support the efforts of women to organize labor unions and the elimination of sweatshop conditions. -
Harriet Stanton Blatch
She headed the Food Administration Speaker's Bureau. She wanted women to get better working conditions and was a member of the Women's Trade Union. -
Muller vs Oregon
This case upheld Oregon law that limited the working hours of women. Louis D. Brandeis claimed that factory labor could be harmful to women's perceived weaker bodies so women should be limited to the number of hours they were allowed to work in a day. -
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
This was a fire that occured at the Triangle Waist Company in New York City. It killed 146 garment workers and it led to the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, which sought better working conditions. -
Alice Paul
She led the National Woman's Party and the Congressional Union. She also campaigned for an Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution. -
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
This organization was led by Jane Addams and Emily Greene Balch. It called for an end to American economic imperialism. -
Margaret Sanger
She wanted birth control to be legalized. She also founded the first birth control clinic in the United States and the American Birth Control League. -
19th Amendment
This extended the right to vote to women in federal or state elections. It was passed after the women's suffrage movement pushed for the right to vote for women. -
Adkins vs. Children's Hospital
The Supreme Court reversed its own reasoning in Muller vs. Oregon in this case. It claimed that women were legally equal with men after the 19th Amendment was passed. -
WAC and WAVES
These were groups of women that held noncombat roles in the army, navy, and Coast Guard when men were sent to fight. Women started to get involved in the armed forces in ways that went beyond their traditional roles as nurses. -
Rosie the Riveter
She symbolized American women who went to work in factories during World War 2. It became a rallying symbol for women to work hard in order to try to win the war. -
Equal Pay Act
This prohibited employers from paying unequally on the basis of gender. It also prohibited employers from giving unequal benefits on the basis of gender. -
"The Feminine Mystique"
This was a book written by Betty Friedan. Friedan depicted how difficult life was for women because they only worried about their families and not themselves. -
National Organization for Women
This organization called for equal employment opportunity and equal pay for women. The organization also wanted abortion to be legalized and an equal rights amendment to the Constitution. -
Bella Abzug and Shirley Chisholm
These women worked with Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan to make the National Women's Political Caucus in 1971. They were outspoken about women's issues. -
Phyllis Schafly
She protested the women's rights acts and movements as defying tradition and natural gender division of labor. She stopped the ERA from being passed because she thought that it would hinder women more than it would help them. -
Sandra Day O'Conner
She was an Arizona judge. Also, she was the first woman to be in the Supreme Court.