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The following timeline represents formal legal changes and reforms regarding women's rights in the United States except voting rights. It includes actual law reforms as well as other formal changes, such as reforms through new interpretations of laws by precedents.

Before the 19th century

1641

• Massachusetts: The 1641 Body of Liberties of the Massachusetts Bay colonists declares that a married woman should be "free from bodilie correction or stripes by her husband".^[1]

1662

• The Virginia colony passes a law incorporating the principle of partus sequitur ventrem, ruling that children of enslaved mothers would be born into slavery, regardless of their father's race or status.^[2]

1664

• Maryland declares that any Englishwoman who married a slave had to live as a slave of her husband's master.^[3]

1718

• Province of Pennsylvania (now U.S. state of Pennsylvania): Married women are given the right to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse.^[4]

19th century

1820–1900

• Primarily through the efforts of physicians in the American Medical Association and legislators, most abortions in the U.S. are outlawed.^[5]

1821

• Maine: Married women were given the right to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse.^[4]

1827

• Illinois: A law prohibits the sale of drugs that could induce abortions,^[6] classifying those medications as "poison".^[7] It was the first in the nation to impose criminal penalties in connection with abortion before quickening.^[8]
• New York: The first statute to criminalize abortion in the state is enacted. It made post-quickening abortions a felony and pre-quickening abortions a misdemeanor.^[8][9]

1835

• Arkansas: Married women are given the right to own (but not control) property in their own name.^[4]
• Massachusetts: Married women are given the right to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse.^[4]
• Tennessee: Married women are given the right to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse.^[4]

1839

• Mississippi: The Married Women's Property Act 1839 grants married women the right to own (but not control) property in her own name.^[10]

1840

• Maine: Married women are given the right to own (but not control) property in their own name.^[4]

1841

• Maryland: Married women are given the right to own (but not control) property in their own name.^[4]

1842

• New Hampshire: Married women are given the right to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse.^[4]

1843

• Kentucky: Married women are given the right to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse.^[4]

1844

• Maine: Married women are granted separate economy and trade licenses.^[4]
• Massachusetts: Married women are granted separate economy.^[11]

1845

• New York: Married women are granted patent rights.^[4] The state also passes a statute that proclaimed women who had abortions could be given a prison sentence of three months to a year. It was one of the few states at the time to have laws punishing women for getting abortions.^[8]
• Florida: Married women are given the right to own (but not control) property in their own name.^[4]

1846

• Alabama: Married women are given the right to own (but not control) property in their own name.^[4]
• Kentucky: Married women are given the right to own (but not control) property in their own name.^[4]
• Ohio: Married women are given the right to own (but not control) property in their own name.^[4]
• Michigan: Married women are given the right to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse.^[4]

1848

• New York: Married Women's Property Act grants married women separate economy.^[12]
• Pennsylvania: Married women are granted separate economy.^[4]
• Rhode Island: Married women are granted separate economy.^[4]

1849

• Alabama: Married women are given the right to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse.^[4]
• Connecticut: Married women are given the right to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse.^[4]
• Missouri: Married women are given the right to own (but not control) property in their own name.^[4]
• South Carolina: Married women are given the right to own (but not control) property in their own name.^[4]

1850–1874

1850

• California: Married Women's Property Act grants married women separate economy.^[13]
• Wisconsin: Married Women's Property Act grants married women separate economy.^[13]
• Oregon: Unmarried women are given the right to own land.^[14]
• Tennessee becomes the first state in the United States to explicitly outlaw wife beating.^[15][16]

1852

• New Jersey: Married women are granted separate economy.^[11]
• Indiana: Married women are given the right to own (but not control) property in their own name.^[4]
• Wisconsin: Married women are given the right to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse.^[4]

1854

• Massachusetts: Married women are granted separate economy.^[13]

1855

• Michigan: Married women are granted separate economy.^[17]

1856

• Connecticut: Married women are granted patent rights.^[4]

1857

• Maine: Married women are granted the right to control their own earnings.^[11]
• Oregon: Married women are given the right to own (but not control) property in their own name.^[4]
• Oregon: Married women are given the right to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse.^[4]

1859

• Kansas: Married Women's Property Act grants married women separate economy.^[13]

1860

• New York's Married Women's Property Act of 1860 passes.^[18] Married women are granted the right to control their own earnings.^[11]
• Maryland: Married women are granted separate economy, the right to control their earnings, and trade licenses.^[4]

1861

• Illinois: Married women are granted separate economy and control over their earnings.^[4]
• Ohio: Married women are granted separate economy and control over their earnings.^[4]

1862

• New York's Married Women's Property Act of 1860 is amended so that women lost equal guardianship of their children, and only had veto power over decisions on apprenticeship and the appointment of testamentary guardians. Parts of the act that made husbands and wives equal in realty in cases of intestacy were overturned.^[18]

1864

• North Carolina: The Supreme Court of North Carolina decides, in the case State v. Black, that " husband cannot be convicted of a battery on his wife unless he inflicts a permanent injury or uses such excessive violence or cruelty as indicates malignity or vindictiveness; and it makes no difference that the husband and wife are living separate by agreement."^[19]

1865

• Louisiana: Married women are given the right to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse.^[4]

1867

• Illinois: In 1867, the state passes the Bill for the Protection of Personal Liberty, which guaranteed all people accused of insanity, including wives, had the right to a public hearing.^[20] It also passes a bill that made abortion and attempted abortion a criminal offense.^[21][6]
• Alabama: Married women are granted separate economy.^[4]
• New Hampshire: Married women are granted separate economy.^[4]

1868

• North Carolina: Married women are granted separate economy.^[4]
• Arkansas: Married women are granted trade licenses.^[4]
• Kansas: Married women are granted separate economy, trade licenses, and control over their earnings.^[4]
• South Carolina: Married women were given the right to own (but not control) property in their own name.^[4]
• Georgia: Married women were given the right to own (but not control) property in their own name.^[4]
• New York City: Susannah Lattin's death led to an investigation that resulted in the regulation of maternity clinics and adoptions in New York City.^[22][23]

1869

• Minnesota: Married women were granted separate economy.^[4]
• Georgia: Married women were granted separate economy.^[24]
• South Carolina: Married women are granted separate economy and trade licenses.^[4]
• Tennessee: Married women are granted separate economy.^[4]
• Iowa: Married women are granted control over their earnings.^[4]
• Illinois and Massachusetts: Legislation passed in both states allow married women equal rights to property and custody of their children.^[25]

Circa 1870

• Illinois passes another law banning the sale of drugs that could cause induced abortions, allowing an exception for "the written prescription of some well-known and respectable practicing physician".^[7]

1870

• Wyoming Territory: Justice Howe gives women the rights to sit on a jury.^[26] The first woman to serve on a jury was Eliza Stewart Boyd.^[27]

1871

• Mississippi: Married women are granted separate economy, trade licenses, and control over their earnings.^[4]
• Arizona: Married women are granted separate economy.^[4]
• Arizona: Married women are granted trade license.^[4]

1872

• New York: The state makes it a penalty to perform an abortion, with a criminal sentence of between 4 and 20 years in prison.^[8]
• Pennsylvania: Married women are granted control over their earnings.^[4]
• California: Married women are granted separate economy.^[4]
• Montana: Married women are granted separate economy.^[4]
• California: Married women are granted trade license.^[4]
• California: Married women are granted control over their earnings.^[4]
• Wisconsin: Married women are granted control over their earnings.^[4]

1873

• Arkansas: Married women are granted separate economy and control over their earnings.^[4]
• Kentucky: Married women are granted separate economy and trade licenses.^[4]
• North Carolina: Married women are granted control over their earnings.^[4]
• Delaware: Married women are granted control over their earnings.^[4]
• Iowa: Married women are granted separate economy.^[4]
• Nevada: Married women are granted separate economy, trade licenses, and control over their earnings.^[4]
• Iowa: Married women are granted trade license.^[4]
• The Comstock Law was a federal act passed by the United States Congress on March 3 as the Act for the "Suppression of Trade in, and Circulation of, Obscene Literature and Articles of Immoral Use". The Act criminalized usage of the U.S. Postal Service to send any of the following items:^[28]
  • erotica
  • contraceptives
  • abortifacients
  • sex toys
  • personal letters alluding to any sexual content or information
  • information regarding the above items

In places like Washington D.C., where the federal government had direct jurisdiction, the act also made it a misdemeanor, punishable by fine and imprisonment, to sell, give away, or have in possession any "obscene" publication.^[28] Half of the states passed similar anti-obscenity statutes that also banned possession and sale of obscene materials, including contraceptives.^[29]

The law was named after its chief proponent, Anthony Comstock. Due to his own personal enforcement of the law during its early days, Comstock received a commission from the postmaster general to serve as a special agent for the U.S. Postal Services.^[28]

• Bradwell v. State of Illinois^[30] was a United States Supreme Court case that solidified the narrow reading of the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and determined that the right to practice a profession was not among these privileges. The case is notable for being an early 14th Amendment challenge to sex discrimination in the United States. In this case the United States Supreme Court held that Illinois constitutionally denied law licenses to women, because the right to practice law was not one of the privileges and immunities guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. The Illinois Supreme Court affirmed.^{[non-primary source needed]}

1874

• Massachusetts: Married women are granted control over their earnings.^[4]
• New Jersey: Married women are granted control over their earnings and trade licenses.^[4]
• Rhode Island: Married women are granted control over their earnings.^[4]
• Colorado: Married women are granted separate economy, trade licenses, and control over their earnings.^[4]
• Illinois: Married women are granted trade license.^[4]
• Minnesota: Married women are granted trade license.^[4]
• Montana: Married women are granted control over their earnings and trade licenses.^[4]

1875–1899

1875

• The Page Act of 1875 is the first restrictive federal immigration law in the United States, and effectively prohibited the entry of Chinese women, marking the end of open borders.^[31] The law technically barred immigrants considered "undesirable",^[32] defining this as a person from East Asia who was coming to the United States to be a forced laborer, any East Asian woman who would engage in prostitution, and all people considered to be convicts in their own country. Only the ban on female East Asian immigrants was effectively and heavily enforced, and it proved to be a barrier for all East Asian women trying to immigrate, especially Chinese women.^[33] The act was later repealed.
• New Hampshire: Married women are granted trade licenses.^[4]
• Wyoming: Married women are granted separate economy, control over their earnings, and trade licenses.^[4]

1877

• Connecticut: Married women are granted control over their earnings and trade licenses.^[4]
• Dakota: Married women are granted separate economy, control over their earnings, and trade licenses.^[4]
• Wisconsin: On March 22, state legislature enacts a law that prohibited courts from denying admission to the bar on the basis of sex. The bill was drafted by Lavinia Goodell and she worked with Speaker of the Wisconsin State Assembly John B. Cassoday for it to pass.^[34][35]

1878

• Virginia: Married women are granted separate economy.^[4]

1879

• Indiana: Married women are granted separate economy and control over their earnings.^[4]
• California: "A person may not be disqualified from entering or pursuing a business, profession, vocation, or employment because of sex, race, creed, color, or national or ethnic origin."^{[36][non-primary source needed]}
• A law was enacted allowing qualified female attorneys to practice in any federal court in the United States.^[37]

1880

• The case Miles v. United States establishes that a second wife may testify as to her husband's bigamy because their marriage is not de jure.^[38]
• Oregon: Married women were granted trade licenses and control over their earnings.^[4]

1881

• Vermont: Married women were granted separate economy and trade licenses.^[4]
• Nebraska: Married women granted separate economy, trade licenses, and control over their earnings.^[4]
• Florida: Married women were given the right to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse.^[4]

1882

• Lindon v. First National Bank is one of the earliest precedent-setting US federal court cases involving common law name change.^[39]

1883

• Washington Territory: Women are granted jury service rights.^[40][41]

1887

• Washington Territory: Women's jury service rights are rescinded due to a change in the territory's Supreme Court.^[40][41]
• Idaho: Married women are granted separate economy and trade licenses.^[4]
• The Edmunds–Tucker Act disincorporates both the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and the Perpetual Emigration Fund on the grounds that they foster polygamy. It prohibits the practice of polygamy and punishes it with a fine of from $500 to $800 and imprisonment of up to five years. It dissolved the corporation of the church and directed the confiscation by the federal government of all church properties valued over a limit of $50,000. The act was enforced by the U.S. Marshal and a host of deputies. The act:
  • Disincorporated the LDS Church and the Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company, with assets to be used for public schools in the Territory.^[42]
  • Required an anti-polygamy oath for prospective voters, jurors and public officials.
  • Annulled territorial laws allowing illegitimate children to inherit.
  • Required civil marriage licenses (to aid in the prosecution of polygamy).
  • Abrogated the common law spousal privilege for polygamists, thus requiring wives to testify against their husbands.^[43]
  • Disenfranchised women (who had been enfranchised by the Territorial legislature in 1870).^[44]
  • Replaced local judges (including the previously powerful Probate Court judges) with federally appointed judges.
  • Abolished the office of Territorial superintendent of district schools, granting the supreme court of the Territory of Utah the right to appoint a commissioner of schools. Also called for the prohibition of the use of sectarian books and for the collection of statistics of the number of so-called gentiles and Mormons attending and teaching in the schools.
    ^[45] In 1890 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the seizure of Church property under the Edmunds–Tucker Act in Late Corporation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints v. United States. The act was repealed in 1978.^[46][47]

1889

• State of Washington: Married women are granted separate economy, control over their earnings, and trade licenses.^[4]

1890

• The case Bassett v. United States, had a ruling that polygamous wives can be required to testify as they are not legally wives.^[48]
• Wyoming: "In their inherent right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, all members of the human race are equal. Since equality in the enjoyment of natural and civil rights is only made sure through political equality, the laws of this state affecting the political rights and privileges of its citizens shall be without distinction of race, color, sex, or any circumstance or condition whatsoever other than the individual incompetency or unworthiness duly ascertained by a court of competent jurisdiction. The rights of citizens of the state of Wyoming to vote and hold office shall not be denied or abridged on account of sex. Both male and female citizens of this state shall equally enjoy all civil, political and religious rights and privileges."^{[49][non-primary source needed]}

1894

• Louisiana: Married women are granted trade licenses.^[4]

1895

• South Carolina: Married women are granted separate economy.
• Utah: Married women are granted separate economy.^[4]
• State of Washington: Married women are granted control over their earnings and trade licenses.^[4]

1896

• Utah: "The rights of citizens of the State of Utah to vote and hold office shall not be denied or abridged on account of sex. Both male and female citizens of this State shall enjoy all civil, political and religious rights and privileges."^{[50][non-primary source needed]}

1898

• Utah: State legislature grants women permission to serve on juries in 1898. Although women were able to serve on juries starting in 1898, women were able to seek exemption from jury duty and they did not regularly serve on juries until the 1930s.^[51][40]

20th century

1900–1939

1907

• Section 3 of the Expatriation Act of 1907 provides for loss of citizenship by American women who married aliens.^[52] Section 4 provided for retention of American citizenship by formerly alien women who had acquired citizenship by marriage to an American after the termination of their marriages. Women residing in the US automatically retained their American citizenship if they did not explicitly renounce; women residing abroad had the option to retain American citizenship by registration with a US consul.^[53] The aim of these provisions was to prevent cases of multiple nationalities among women.^[54]

1908

• Muller v. Oregon is a landmark decision in United States Supreme Court history that was used to justify both sex discrimination and usage of labor laws during the time period. It upheld Oregon state restrictions on the working hours of women as justified by the special state interest in protecting women's health. The ruling had important implications for protective labor legislation.^[55]
• New York City: The Sullivan Ordinance is a municipal law passed on January 21 by the board of aldermen, barring management of public buildings from allowing women to smoke within their venues.^[56][57] The mayor, George B. McClellan Jr., vetoed the ordinance in February.^[58]

1910

• The White-Slave Traffic Act, or the Mann Act, is a United States federal law passed June 25.^[59] It is named after Congressman James Robert Mann of Illinois, and in its original form made it a felony to engage in interstate or foreign commerce transport of "any woman or girl for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose". In practice, its ambiguous language about "immorality" resulted in the criminalization of some consensual sexual behavior between adults.^[60] It was amended by Congress in 1978 and again in 1986.^[61]

1912

• On January 1, the Massachusetts government enforces a law that allowed women to work a maximum of 54 hours instead of 56. Ten days later, affected workers discover that pay had been reduced along with the cut in hours.^[62]

1915

• The Supreme Court first considers the Expatriation Act of 1907 in the 1915 case MacKenzie v. Hare. The plaintiff, suffragist Ethel MacKenzie, was living in California, but was denied voter registration by the respondent in his capacity as a commissioner of the San Francisco Board of Election due to her marriage to a Scottish man.^[54] MacKenzie contended that the Expatriation Act of 1907, "if intended to apply to her, is beyond the authority of Congress", as neither the Fourteenth Amendment nor any other part of the Constitution gave Congress the power to "denationalize a citizen without his concurrence". However, Justice Joseph McKenna, writing the majority opinion, stated that while "t may be conceded that a change of citizenship cannot be arbitrarily imposed, that is, imposed without the concurrence of the citizen he law in controversy does not have that feature. It deals with a condition voluntarily entered into, with notice of the consequences." Justice James Clark McReynolds, in a concurring opinion, stated that the case should be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.^[63]

1918

• Margaret Sanger is charged under the New York law for disseminating information about contraception. On appeal, her conviction was reversed on the grounds that contraceptive devices could legally be promoted for the cure and prevention of disease.^[64]

1921

• The Promotion of the Welfare and Hygiene of Maternity and Infancy Act, more commonly known as the Sheppard–Towner Act, is an Act of Congress that provided federal funding for maternity and childcare.^[65] It was sponsored by Senator Morris Sheppard (D) of Texas and Representative Horace Mann Towner (R) of Iowa, and signed by President Warren G. Harding on November 23.^[66] Before its passage, most of the expansion in public health programs occurred at the state and local levels. Many factors helped its passage including the environment of the Progressive Era.^[67] Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Illinois never participated in the program. Participation in the program varied depending on states. The Act was due for renewal in 1926, but was met with increased opposition.^[67] Congress allowed the act's funding to lapse in 1929 after successful opposition by the American Medical Association, which saw the act as a socialist threat to its professional autonomy,^[68] despite the Pediatric Section of the AMA House of Delegates endorsing its renewal. The rebuking of the Pediatric Section by the full House of Delegates led to the members of the Pediatric Section establishing the American Academy of Pediatrics.^[69]

1922

• The Cable Act of 1922 is a United States federal law that reverses former immigration laws regarding marriage.^{[70][full citation needed]} Previously, a woman lost her United States citizenship if she married a foreign man, since she assumed the citizenship of her husband, a law that did not apply to United States citizen men who married foreign women. The act repealed sections 3 and 4 of the Expatriation Act of 1907,^[71] but guaranteed independent female citizenship only to women who were married to an "alien eligible to naturalization".^[72] At the time of the law's passage, Asians were not considered to be racially eligible for US citizenship.^[73][74]

1931

• An amendment to the Cable Act allows females to retain their citizenship even if they married an Asian.^[75]

1932

• Michigan: A law is passed that makes abortion illegal.^[76]

1936

• A federal appeals court rules in United States v. One Package of Japanese Pessaries that the federal government could not interfere with doctors providing contraception to their patients.^[77]

1940–1969

1945

• Illinois: In People ex rel. Rago v. Lipsky, 63 N.E.2d 642 (Ill. 1945), the Appellate Court of Illinois, First District, did not allow a married woman to stay registered to vote under her birth name, due to "the long-established custom, policy and rule of the common law among English-speaking peoples whereby a woman's name is changed by marriage and her husband's surname becomes as a matter of law her surname".^[78][79]

1946

• North Carolina: A state constitutional amendment passes, allowing women to serve on a jury.^[80]

1947

• New Jersey: The terms person, persons, and people, as well as personal pronouns, are changed to apply to both sexes.^[81]

1948

• Goesaert v. Cleary is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court upheld a Michigan law which prohibited women from being licensed as a bartender in all cities having a population of 50,000 or more, unless their father or husband owned the establishment. The plaintiff, Valentine Goesaert, challenged the law on the ground that it infringed on the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. Speaking for the majority, Justice Felix Frankfurter affirmed the judgment of the Detroit, Michigan, district court and upheld the constitutionality of the state law. The state argued that since the profession of bartending could potentially lead to moral and social problems for women, it was within the state's power to bar them from working as bartenders. Only when the owner of the bar was a sufficiently close relative to the women bartender could it be guaranteed that such immorality would not be present.^{[non-primary source needed]}
• The Women's Armed Services Integration Act (Pub.L. 80–625, 62 Stat. 356, enacted June 12, 1948) enabled women to serve as permanent, regular members of the armed forces in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and the recently formed Air Force. However, Section 502 of the act limited service of women by excluding them from aircraft and vessels of the Navy that might engage in combat.^{[non-primary source needed]}

1955

• Texas: It became legal for women to serve on juries in Texas.^[82]

1959

• California: In 1959 the Government Code Section 12947.5 (part of the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, passed in California) declares in part, “It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer to refuse to permit an employee to wear pants on account of the sex of the employee”, with exceptions only for “requiring an employee to wear a costume while that employee is portraying a specific character or dramatic role” and when good cause is shown.^[83] Thus, the standard California FEHA discrimination complaint form now includes an option for "denied the right to wear pants".^[84]

1961

• Hoyt v. Florida is an appeal by Gwendolyn Hoyt, who had killed her husband and received a jail sentence for second degree murder. Although she had suffered mental and physical abuse in her marriage, and showed neurotic, if not psychotic, behavior, a six-man jury deliberated for 25 minutes before finding her guilty.^[85]
• Ohio: In State ex rel. Krupa v. Green, the appellate court allows a married woman to register to vote in her birth name which she had openly and solely used, and been well-known to use, before her marriage, and held that she could use that name as a candidate for public office.^[86][78]

1963

• The Equal Pay Act of 1963 is a United States federal law amending the Fair Labor Standards Act, and was aimed at abolishing wage disparity based on sex (see Gender pay gap). It was signed into law on June 10 by John F. Kennedy as part of his New Frontier Program.^[87] In passing the bill, Congress stated that sex discrimination:^[88]
  • depresses wages and living standards for employees necessary for their health and efficiency;
  • prevents the maximum utilization of the available labor resources;
  • tends to cause labor disputes, thereby burdening, affecting, and obstructing commerce;
  • burdens commerce and the free flow of goods in commerce; and
  • constitutes an unfair method of competition.

The law provides (in part) that:

No employer having employees subject to any provisions of this section shall discriminate, within any establishment in which such employees are employed, between employees on the basis of sex by paying wages to employees in such establishment at a rate less than the rate at which he pays wages to employees of the opposite sex in such establishment for equal work on jobs the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions, except where such payment is made pursuant to (i) a seniority system; (ii) a merit system; (iii) a system which measures earnings by quantity or quality of production; or (iv) a differential based on any other factor other than sex ^[88]

1964

• The decision in People of California v. Hernandez by the California Supreme Court brought into question the validity of the rule that mistake as to a female's age is not a defense to a statutory rape charge.^[89] The defendant was convicted of statutory rape, but the trial judge refused to allow the defendant to present evidence that the defendant had a good faith belief the female subject was of age as a defense to the charge. The defendant filed an appeal, with the sole issue being the question of whether defendant's intent and knowledge at the time of the commission of the crime mattered in determining criminal culpability. The California Supreme Court held that "a charge of statutory rape is defensible criminal intent is lacking," overruling and disapproving prior decisional law holding to the contrary, particularly People v. Ratz (1896). The decision set off a flurry of discussion among academics on whether "the uniform rule in the United states a mistake as to the age of a female is not a defense to the crime of statutory rape".^[90][91][92]
• Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, codified as Subchapter VI of Chapter 21 of title 42 of the United States Code, prohibits discrimination by covered employers on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.^[93] Title VII applies to and covers an employer "who has fifteen (15) or more employees for each working day in each of twenty or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year".^[94] Title VII also prohibits discrimination against an individual because of his or her association with another individual of a particular race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, such as by an interracial marriage.^[95]

1965

• Griswold v. Connecticut is a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, in which it ruled that the Constitution of the United States protects the liberty of married couples to buy and use contraceptives without government restriction.^[96] The case involved a Connecticut "Comstock law" that prohibited any person from using "any drug, medicinal article or instrument for the purpose of preventing conception". The court held that the statute was unconstitutional, and that its effect was "to deny disadvantaged citizens ... access to medical assistance and up-to-date information in respect to proper methods of birth control". By a vote of 7–2, the Supreme Court invalidated the law on the grounds that it violated the "right to marital privacy", establishing the basis for the right to privacy with respect to intimate practices. This and other cases view the right to privacy as "protected from governmental intrusion".^[97]
• The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) decides that segregated job advertising—"Help Wanted Male" and "Help Wanted Female"—was permissible because it served "the convenience of readers".^[98] Advocates for women's rights founded the National Organization for Women (NOW) in June 1966 out of frustration with the enforcement of the sex bias provisions of the Civil Rights Act and Executive Order 11375.^[99]
• New York state legislature amends its abortion-related statute to allow for more therapeutic exceptions.^[8]

1966

• Pauli Murray and Dorothy Kenyon successfully argue White v. Crook, a case in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that women have an equal right to serve on juries.^[100]
• Mississippi: Legislature makes abortion legal in cases of rape.^[101]

1967

• Executive Order 11375, signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson on October 13, bans discrimination on the basis of sex in hiring and employment in both the United States federal workforce and on the part of government contractors.^{[citation needed]}
• Johnson signs Public Law 90-130, lifting grade restrictions and strength limitations on women in the United States military. It amended 10 USC, eliminating the 2% maximum on enlisted women, and allowed female officers to be promoted to colonel or higher.^{[citation needed]}
• Maryland: In Erie Exchange v. Lane, 246 Md. 55 (1967) the Court of Appeals held that a married woman can lawfully adopt an assumed name, even if it is not her birth name or the name of her lawful husband, without legal proceedings.^[102]
• Section 230.3 Abortion (Tentative draft 1959, Official draft 1962) of the American Law Institute's (ALI) Model Penal Code (MPC) is used as a model for abortion law reform legislation enacted in 13 states from 1967 to 1972. It legalized abortion to preserve the health (whether physical or mental) of the mother, if the pregnancy is due to incest or rape, or if doctors agree that there is a significant risk that the child will be born with a serious mental or physical defect.^{[citation needed]}

1968

• King v. Smith is a decision in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) could not be withheld because of the presence of a "substitute father" who visited a family on weekends.^{[citation needed]}
• The EEOC declares age restrictions on flight attendants’ employment to be illegal sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.^[103]
• Prince Georges County: In 1967 Kathryn Kusner applied for a jockey license through the Maryland Racing Commission but was denied because she was a woman.^[104] Later, Judge Ernest A. Loveless of the Circuit Court of Prince Georges County ordered her to be granted the license,^[105] and Kusner became the first licensed female jockey in the United States.^[104]
• Texas: The Marital Property Act of 1967, which gave married women the same property rights as their husbands, goes into effect on January 1,.^[106]
• Mississippi: On June 15 a law making women eligible to serve on state court juries is signed by Governor John Bell Williams. Mississippi was the last state in America to allow this.^[107]

1969

• New Mexico: Legislature passes a law that made it a felony for anyone to provide a woman with an abortion unless it was needed to save her life, or because her pregnancy was a result of rape or incest.^[108]
• In the case Weeks v. Southern Bell (1969), Lorena Weeks claims that Southern Bell had violated her rights under the 1964 Civil Rights Act when they denied her application for promotion to a higher paying position because she was a woman. She won her case in 1969 after several appeals.^{[citation needed]}
• The California Supreme Court rules in favor of abortion rights after hearing an appeal from Dr. Leon Belous, who had been convicted of referring a woman to someone who could provide her with an illegal abortion;^[109] California's abortion law was declared unconstitutional in People v. Belous because it was vague and denied people due process.^[110]

1970–1999

1970

• In 1970, Eleanor Holmes Norton represents 60 female employees of Newsweek who had filed a claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that Newsweek had a policy of only allowing men to be reporters.^[111] The women won, and Newsweek agreed to allow women to be reporters.^[111] The day the claim was filed, Newsweek's cover article was "Women in Revolt", covering the feminist movement; the article was written by a woman who had been hired on a freelance basis since there were no female reporters at the magazine.^[112]
• The Title X Family Planning Program, officially known as Public Law 91-572 or "Population Research and Voluntary Family Planning Programs", is enacted under President Richard Nixon in 1970 as part of the Public Health Service Act. It is the only federal grant program dedicated solely to providing individuals with comprehensive family planning and related preventive health services, and is legally designed to prioritize the needs of low-income families or uninsured people (including those who are not eligible for Medicaid) who might not otherwise have access to these health care services. These services are provided to low-income and uninsured individuals at reduced or no cost.^[113]
• Congress removes references to contraception from federal anti-obscenity laws.^[114]
• Schultz v. Wheaton Glass Co. is a case heard before the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. It applied the Bennett Amendment on Chapter VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and helped define the limitations of equal pay for men and women.^[115][116] In its rulings, the court determined that a job that is "substantially equal" in terms of what the job entails, although not necessarily in title or job description, is protected by the Equal Pay Act.^[117] An employer who hires a woman to do the same job as a man but gives the job a new title in order to offer it a lesser pay is discriminating under that act.^[117]
• In Sprogis v. United Air Lines, Inc., a federal trial court rules in a female flight attendant's favor on whether airline marriage bans were illegal under Title VII. The court found that neither sex nor marital status was a bona fide occupational qualification for the flight attendant occupation. The court's ruling was upheld upon appeal.^[118][119]
• Women were not allowed in New York's McSorley's Old Ale House until August 10, after National Organization for Women attorneys Faith Seidenberg and Karen DeCrow filed a discrimination case against the bar in District Court and won.^[120] The two entered McSorley's in 1969, and were refused service, which was the basis for their lawsuit for discrimination. The case decision made the front page of The New York Times on June 26, 1970.^[121] The suit, Seidenberg v. McSorleys' Old Ale House established that as a public place, the bar could not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution.^[122] The bar was then forced to admit women, but it did so "kicking and screaming".^[123] With the ruling allowing women to be served, the bathroom became unisex, but a ladies' room was not installed until 1986.^[124]
• Hawaii, New York, Alaska and Washington repeal their abortion laws. Hawaii became the first state to legalize abortions on the request of the woman,^[125] New York repealed its 1830 law, and Washington held a referendum on legalizing early pregnancy abortions, becoming the first state to legalize abortion through a vote of the people.^[126]
• New York: On April 10, the New York Senate passes a law decriminalizing abortion in most cases.^[127] Republican Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller signed the bill into law the next day.^[128] It adds a consent provision requiring a physician to obtain the woman's consent before performing an abortion, permitted physician-provided elective abortion services within the first 24 weeks of pregnancy or to preserve her life and allowed a woman, when acting upon the advice of a duly licensed physician, to perform an "abortional act" on herself within the first 24 weeks of pregnancy or to preserve her life.^[129]
• South Carolina and Virginia reform their abortion laws based on the American Law Institute Model Penal Code.
• Illinois: "The equal protection of the laws shall not be denied or abridged on account of sex by the State or its units of local government and school districts."^{[130][non-primary source needed]}
• Florida: Mary R. Grizzle introduces and passes the Married Women Property Rights Act, giving married women in Florida, for the first time, the right to own property solely in their names and to transfer that property without their husbands' signatures.^[131]

1971

• Barring women from practicing law becomes prohibited.^[132]
• Pennsylvania: "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania because of the sex of the individual."^{[133][non-primary source needed]}
• United States v. Vuitch was a United States Supreme Court abortion rights case, which held that the District of Columbia's abortion law banning the practice except when necessary for the health or life of the woman was not unconstitutionally vague.^{[citation needed]}
• Reed v. Reed is an Equal Protection case in the United States in which the Supreme Court ruled that the administrators of estates cannot be named in a way that discriminates between sexes. The Supreme Court ruled for the first time in Reed v. Reed that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibited differential treatment based on sex.^{[citation needed]}
• Phillips v. Martin Marietta Corp. is a Supreme Court case in which the court ruled that under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, an employer may not, in the absence of business necessity, refuse to hire women with pre-school-age children while hiring men with such children. It was the first sex discrimination case under Title VII to reach the Court.^{[citation needed]}
• Virginia: "That no person shall be deprived of his life, liberty, or property without due process of law; that the General Assembly shall not pass any law impairing the obligation of contracts; and that the right to be free from any governmental discrimination upon the basis of religious conviction, race, color, sex, or national origin shall not be abridged, except that the mere separation of the sexes shall not be considered discrimination."^{[134][non-primary source needed]}
• Alaska repeals its statute that said inducing an abortion was a criminal offense.^[135]

1972

• Vermont: The Vermont Supreme Court makes a ruling that effectively ended abortion restrictions in the state.^[136]
• New York: The Court of Appeals rules that Bernice Gera could be a baseball umpire.^[137]
• Washington: "Equality of rights and responsibility under the law shall not be denied or abridged on account of sex."^[138]
• Alaska: "No person is to be denied the enjoyment of any civil or political right because of race, color, creed, sex or national origin. The legislature shall implement this section."^{[139][non-primary source needed]}
• Title IX is a portion of the United States Education Amendments of 1972, Public Law No. 92‑318, 86 Stat. 235 (June 23, 1972), codified at 20 U.S.C. §§ 1681–1688, co-authored and introduced by Senator Birch Bayh; it was renamed the Patsy Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act in 2002, after its late House co-author and sponsor.^{[citation needed]}
• Eisenstadt v. Baird was a United States Supreme Court case that established the right of unmarried people to possess contraception on the same basis as married couples. The Court struck down a Massachusetts law prohibiting the distribution of contraceptives to unmarried people for the purpose of preventing pregnancy, ruling that it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution.^{[citation needed]}
• The 10th Circuit case Moritz v. Commissioner successfully challenged the denial of a dependent-care deduction to a single man who was a caretaker for his sick mother; the deduction had previously been limited to women, widowers, or divorced men.^[140][141]
• Maryland: In Stuart v. Board of Elections, on the question of whether a wife could register to vote in her birth name rather than her husband's last name, the Maryland Court of Appeals decides that "a married woman's surname does not become that of her husband where, as here, she evidences a clear intent to consistently and nonfraudulently use her birth given name subsequent to her marriage".^[102]
• Florida reformed its abortion law based on the American Law Institute Model Penal Code.^{[citation needed]}
• Maryland: "Equality of rights under the law shall not be abridged or denied because of sex."^{[142][non-primary source needed]}
• Texas: "Equality under the law shall not be denied or abridged because of sex, race, color, creed, or national origin. This amendment is self-operative."^{[143][non-primary source needed]}

1973

• Roe v. Wade is a landmark decision by the Supreme Court on the issue of abortion. The court ruled 7–2 that a right to privacy under the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment extended to a woman's decision to have an abortion, but that this right must be balanced against the state's two legitimate interests in regulating abortions: protecting women's health and protecting the potentiality of human life.^[144]
• Doe v. Bolton is a decision of the Supreme Court overturning abortion laws in Georgia.
• Frontiero v. Richardson is a landmark United States Supreme Court case^[145] that decided benefits given by the United States military to the family of service members cannot be given out differently because of sex.^{[citation needed]}
• Pittsburgh Press Co. v. Pittsburgh Commission on Human Relations was a 1973 decision of the United States Supreme Court which upheld an ordinance enacted in Pittsburgh that forbids sex-designated classified advertising for job opportunities, against a claim by the parent company of the Pittsburgh Press that the ordinance violated its First Amendment rights.^{[citation needed]}
• From 1973 on, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has followed the Helms Amendment, banning use of U.S. government funds to provide abortion as a method of family planning anywhere in the world.^[146]
• Colorado: "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the state of Colorado or any of its political subdivisions because of sex."^{[147][non-primary source needed]}
• Montana: "The dignity of the human being is inviolable. No person shall be denied the equal protection of the laws. Neither the state nor any person, firm, corporation, or institution shall discriminate against any person in the exercise of his civil or political rights on account of race, color, sex, culture, social origin or condition, or political or religious ideas."^{[148][non-primary source needed]}
• New Mexico: "No person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law; nor shall any person be denied equal protection of the laws. Equality of rights under law shall not be denied on account of the sex of any person."^[149]
• California: In Rentzer v. Unemployment Ins. Appeals Bd., Gail Rentzer suffered from an ectopic pregnancy and was unable to work. She was denied compensation by the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board because they did not recognize pregnancy or related medical complications as a disability. The California Court of Appeals found that because Gail had not had a normal pregnancy and her emergency surgery was performed to stop bleeding and save her life, her pregnancy was deemed worthy of disability benefits. The case allowed women with medical complications during pregnancy to be granted benefits and more protections, such as disability coverage for not just pregnancy, but also the amount of time it takes for recovery from complications.^[150]

1974

• Kentucky adopts a law preventing public hospitals from performing abortion procedures except to protect the life of the mother.^[151]
• Connecticut: "No person shall be denied the equal protection of the law nor be subjected to segregation or discrimination in the exercise or enjoyment of his or her civil or political rights because of religion, race, color, ancestry, national origin or sex."^{[152][non-primary source needed]}
Zdroj:https://en.wikipedia.org?pojem=Timeline_of_women's_legal_rights_in_the_United_States_(other_than_voting)
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