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1923
At the 75th anniversary of the Seneca Falls convection, Alice Paul, proposes an Equal Rights Amendment to remedy inequalities not addressed in the 19th Amendment. -
1920
Henry Burn casts the deciding vote that makes the Tennesse the 36th, and final state to ratify the 19th Amendment.
August 26th: THe 19th Amendment is adopted and the women of the United States are finally enfranchised. -
1928-1929
Many states continue to bar women from jury duty and public office. Widows suceed their husbands as govenors of Texas and Wyoming. Middle class women begin to attend college and enter the labor force. The anticipated "women's votes" failed to materialize by the end of the decade. -
1933
Frances Perkins is appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as the first female Secretary of Labor. In the New Deal years, at urging of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and the Democratic women's leader Molly Dewson, many women gained positions in Federal social services bureau, including Mary McLeod Bethune, director of the Negro Affaird Division of the National Youth Administration. -
1936
The Federal Court ruled birth control legal for its own sake, rather than soley for prevention of disease. -
1941
The United States enters WWII. Millions of women are recruited for defense industry jobs in war years and become significant parts of the labor force. WAC and WAVE are established and become the first Women's Military Corps. -
1947
Percentage of women in the labor force declines as woen leave jobs to get married and make way for returning soldiers. By the end of the decade, the number of working women had began to increase again. -
1952
Democratic and Republican parties eliminate women's divisions. -
1955
Civil Rights movement escalates in the South; Septima Clark and others lead sit-ins and demonstrations, providing models for future protest strategies. -
1960
FDA approves birth control pills. -
1961
President's Commission on the Status of women is established, headed by Eleanor Roosevelt. Commission sucessfully pushes for passage in 1963 of the Equal Pay Act, the first federal law to require equal compensation for men and women in federal jobs. -
1964
The Civil Rights Act prohibits job discrimination on the basis of race, sex, and establishes an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to address discrimination claims. -
1966
The National Organization for Women (NOW), founded by Betty Friedan and associates, promoted child care for working mothers, abortion rights, the equal rights amendment, and "full participation in the mainstram of American Society now." -
1974
Ella Grasso of Connecticut becomes the first woman Governor elected in her own right. -
1981
Sandra Day O'Conner is appointed as the first woman of the US Supreme Court Justice. -
1984
Geraldine Ferraro is the first woman from a major political party nominated as Vice President. -
1992
More women run for, and are elected to, public office than in any other year in United States history.