Women's history month: "Century of Struggle and Triumph"

Off Our Backs, Mar 2000

women's history month: "Century of Struggle and Triumph"

1899: Illustrator Chas. Gibson introduces the Gibson Girls as the beauty ideal.

1900: Women are included in the Olympics (golf & tennis) and Margaret Abbot wins a gold medal in golf for the U.S.

1901: The washing machine debuts.

1909: In the "Uprising of the 20,000," women gament workers stike in NYC for better wages and working conditions; over 300 shops sign union contracts.

1911: Fire kills 146 women workers at Triangle Shirtwaist sweatshop in NYC.

1912: 20,000 Suffrage supporters parade in New York City; 40 people hospitalized from assaults by spectators.

1913: Alice Paul and Lucy Burns lead 5,000 suffragists in Washington march for the vote.

1914: Mary Phelps Jacob patents the brassiere, leading to the demise of the corset.

1915: Jeannette Rankin, suffragist and pacifist, becomes the first woman elected to Congress; Margaret Sanger opens USA's first birth control clinic.

1918: More than 1.4 million women go to work in non-traditional jobs to replace men overseas during WWI.

1920: Nineteenth Amendment ratified giving women the right to vote; Kotex, the first widely-available sanitary napkin, is introduced.

1921: Edith Wharton wins the Pulitzer for Age of Innocence.

1924: The "Pap" test introduced for early detection of uterine and cervical cancer.

1926: First female to swim the English Channel, Gertrude Ederle, breaks men's record.

1928: Olympic 800-meter run declared dangerous for women, banned until 1960; Margaret Mead challenges the biological basis of gender differences.

1930: 77% of school districts won't hire married women as teachers, and 63% will fire women who get married.

1931: Tampons and home electric refrigerator debut.

1932: Amelia Earhart flies solo across the Atlantic.

1933: Eleanor Roosevelt becomes first U.S. president's wife to hold a press conference; Congress creates WAVES and WACS for non-combat military duty.

1936: United States v. One Package declassifies birth control information as obscene and contraception becomes available.

1938: Katherine Hepburn is forced out of RKO pictures for wearing slacks and refusing to do pin-ups.

1940: Nylon stockings go on sale in USA.

1944: "Rosie the Riveters" swell wartime women's workforce to 7 million; government sponsors 24-hour daycare for their kids.

1955: Rosa Parks sparks civil rights movement by refusing to go to the back of a Montgomery, Alabama bus.

1959: Pantyhose introduced.

1960: First birth control pill is sold.

1963: Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique begins third wave of feminist movement; Equal Pay Act passes.

1964: Civil Rights Act includes protection for women.

1965: Weeks v. Southern Bell knocks out restrictive labor laws and company regulations on the hours and conditions of women's work, opening many previously male-only jobs.

1966: National Organization for Women founded; Pampers diapers introduced by Procter & Gamble.

1972: Ms. Magazine's first issue of 250,000 copies sold out in 8 days.

1972: Anti-feminist Phyllis Schafly launches STOP ERA to fight the Equal Rights Amendment; Congress passes the Equal Employment Opportunity Act detailing anti-sex discrimination guidelines for employers; first rape crisis center and hotline opens; Title IX prohibits sex discrimination in federally-supported education programs.

1973: Roe v. Wade guarantees right to abortion; sex-segregated help wanted ads in newspapers outlawed.

1975: Title IX guarantees equal educational opportunity; women admitted to military academies; Billie Jean King kicks Bobby Riggs' butt in tennis "battle of the sexes".

1976: Barbara Walters becomes first woman to anchor a major TV network news program.

1977: Mammogram introduced for the detection of breast cancer.

1978: For the first time in history, more women than men enter college.

1981: First woman Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor; Supreme Court decides Kirchberg v. Feenstra, overturning state laws designating husband "head and master" of the house.

1982: Equal Rights Amendment defeated, lacking 3 states needed for ratification.

1984: Joan Benoit wins first Olympic Women's Marathon.

1990: Norplant introduced.

1993: Family and Medical Leave Act becomes law; Supreme Court rules that sex harassment is illegal.

1997: Women's National Basketball League debuts.

1998: Women surpass men in high school graduation and college degrees.

1999: Women's World Cup soccer draws world record-breaking crowds.

1999: Women earn 74% of men's wages overall.

2000: U.S. Dept. of Labor estimates that women will comprise half the paid workforce; 8 million women-owned businesses employ one of every 4 U.S. workers, more than all Fortune 500 companies combined.

2000: Women win half the seats in Congress, and the Vice Presidency, leading to first woman Prez in 2004 (well we can dream, can't we?)

From Feminist.Com and the National Women's History Project