1920
Women get the vote with the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

1930’s

1930
Jesse Daniel Aimes established the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching. Margaret Ripley Wolfe says- “the white Southern women challenged the assumption that they needed lynching to protect their honor.”

The International Ladies' Garment Worker's Union is formed.

1931
Jane Addams becomes the first woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

1932
Arkansan Hattie Caraway becomes the first woman elected to the Senate and the first woman to preside over the Senate.

Amelia Earheart completes a transatlantic and transcontinental flight, the first woman to do either.

The National Economy Act (Section 213) is passed prohibiting more than one family member from working for the Civil Service Program. It lasted until 1937.

Ruth Bryan Owen is the first woman ambassador of the United States to serve abroad.

1934
Washington, Arkansas elected a woman mayor and all-woman town council.

1937
Act 70 of national legislation limited the work week for women in private industry to 54 hours per week.

The U.S. Supreme Court decided West Coast Hotel vs. Parrish, upheld Washington state's minimum wage law for women.

1938
53% of Southern families were tenant farmers. women were at the bottom of the Southern economic scale.

Women Council of Realtors formed.

1939
University of Arkansas School of Law graduated its third woman.

Ruth Hanna McCormick Simms becomes Thomas Dewey’s campaign manager. She was the first woman to be given complete authority on a presidential campaign.

Laundry Day on Chicot Farms, 1930’s
Courtesy of the Arkansas History Commission

African-American woman sharecropper, West Memphis, 1930’s
Courtesy of the Arkansas History Commission

1940's
Little Rock Chapter of the Business and Professional Women’s Club endorsed a national “right to work” law

Nationally, 800,000 women belonged to unions.

1940-1944
The number of women in unions increased to 3,000,000.

1942
Alston vs. School Board of Norfolk-U.S. Supreme Court upheld the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals that discriminatory pay was unconstitutional. Susie Morris, an English teacher at Little Rock Dunbar, originally filed the case. She was fired consequently and not rehired until 1952.

President Roosevelt ordered all Japanese-Americans living on the West Coast be moved to relocation centers inland (including two in Arkansas).

WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services) was established.
WAACS (Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps) founded.
SPARs (Semper Parafus-Always Ready), a branch of the Coast Guard founded.
The war department urges industries to hire women.

World War II propaganda poster encouraging women to work outside of the home
Courtesy of the Library of Congress

Lieutenant Commander Dorothy Constance Stratton becomes head of the Coast Guard Women’s Reserves.

1943           
WRs (Women Marine Reserves) founded.

WASPS (Women Air Force Service Pilots) was founded.

President Roosevelt signed a law changing WAACs to Women Army Corps (WACS), thus they became a branch of the army (though not with benefits).

Hattie Wyatt Caraway served as President pro tem of the U.S. Senate in the absence of Vice-President Henry A. Wallace.

Arkansas state legislation applied the 1937 law to state workers and required women workers receive overtime pay after 48 hours.

31% of the national labor force workers were women.

Act 47 of Arkansas legislation prohibits Japanese or any descendants to own land in Arkansas.

1944
The U.S.S. Secretary became the first “mixed” navy ship with two women officers and sixty enlisted women.

1945
A national poll (Fortune magazine) revealed 57% of women and 63% of men believed “married women whose husbands earned enough to support them should not be allowed to hold jobs.” 1946-1960
Dr. Spock reached over one million readers a year, giving advice on how to be a good mother.

1947
Senators Claude Pepper and Wayne Morse introduced a bill that would require equal pay for male and female factory workers.
Florence Blanchfield, superintendent of Army services, became the first regularly commissioned female officer in the U.S. Army.

1949
Georgian Neese Clark became the first woman treasurer of the United States.

Margaret Chase Smith became the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress.

African-American WAC (Women’s Army Corp) member during World War II
Courtesy of the Arkansas History Commission

1950's
1950-1960
The participation of white married women with children in the workforce increased from 17 to 30%.

1950
One-half of black college graduates were women and 58% of all black professionals.

The proposed ERA passed the Senate 63-19 and went to the House of Representatives.

1951           
One-third of women married by age 19.

1954
The Republican Party included a “plank supporting the ERA, adopted by acclamation.”

The Airline Stewards and Stewardesses Association, in a dispute with American Airlines, asked for a reversal of company policy that stewardesses must retire at age 32.

1955
The general assembly of the Presbyterian Church approved women as ministers. 1956
In his State of the Union address, President Eisenhower called for “equal pay for equal work without discrimination because of sex.”

1958
The Women’s Emergency Committee formed in Little Rock, Arkansas in response to the closing of public schools by Governor Faubus. This was the first time women in Arkansas organized in a large number to fight segregation.

During this year more women got married between the ages of 15 and 19 than any other age span.

1959
The American Law Institute, in its Moral Penal Code, suggested abortions be allowed in certain situations.

1960’s
The League of Women Voters was half the size it was in the 1920’s.

1960 Women’s wages were down from 63.9% of men’s in 1955 to 60%.

58% of black women worked outside the home.

Over one-third of black women were professionals, sales clerks, or in clerical jobs verses less than one-fifth in 1940.

One-third of black women were divorced or separated (400% higher than white women).

1961
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Florida law-exempting women from jury duty unless they volunteer.

1963
The Equal Pay Act passed in Congress.

Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique.

1964
Civil Rights Act (Title 7) prohibiting employment discrimination was passed. It went into effect the next year.

1965
In Griswold v. Connecticut, the Supreme Court ruled the state law prohibiting the use of birth control invades the right to marital privacy.

1966
The U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare approved distributing birth control instruction and contraceptives to all U.S. women who request them.

The National Organization of Women (NOW) was formed with Betty Friedan as president.

1968
“The wives most likely to work were married to middle-income men.”

Federally Employed Women (FEW) is founded by Daisy Fields in an effort to gain equality and equal opportunities for female employees of the federal government.

Roxanne Dunbar founded Cell 16, considered by many to be the most militant group of the women’s liberation movement.

1969
Dr. Lonny Myers founded the National Abortion Rights Action League.

Bowe et al. vs. Colgate-Palmolive overturned restrictions on weight lifting in the work environment that applied to women only.

1965-1975
Divorce rates doubled. As no-fault divorces became more common, alimony awards declined. In the first year after divorce, on average, a man’s standard of living increased by 42% and a woman’s decreased by 73%.

1970’s
The Supreme Court “invalidated a law giving preference to men as executors; banned the press from referring to gender in ‘help wanted’ ads; and invalidated an armed forces regulation denying dependents of women members the same benefits as those of male members.”

1970
First female law firm in Arkansas was founded.

The Women’s Bureau announced companies with $50,000 or more in government contracts or fifty-plus employees must follow the set sexual discrimination guidelines (this became a sore point for women employed in small companies).

1971
Governor Bumpers formed the Governor’s Commission on the Status of Women.

First female cadets entered the ROTC program at Arkansas State University.

Five women inducted into the all-male Phi Alpha Delta law fraternity.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that companies couldn’t deny employment to women who have small children, unless they did the same for men also.

The Civil Service Commission ruled that sex specification must be eliminated in federal jobs.

1971-1974
Congress passed several equity laws that:
“Prohibited discrimination in medical training
Allowed middle-income families to deduct for child care if both spouses worked
Extended benefits to married women in federal government jobs
Prohibited creditors from discriminating on the basis of sex or marital status
Extended coverage of the 1963 Equal Pay Act by an Education Amendments Act
Passed a Women’s Equity Act (supported training and counseling programs for women)”

1972
Title 9 of the Higher Education Act, equal opportunities for students regardless of gender passed.Sex discrimination is banned in schools receiving federal funds.

The Equal Rights Amendment passed the Senate (84-8) and went to the states for ratification.

The Supreme Court ruled unwed fathers have a right to prove themselves fit parents, just as the mothers do.

Black Female Action, Inc. was founded with priorities of job discrimination, drug abuse, and sickle cell anemia.

Arkansas Department of Finance and Adminstration liberalized their maternity leave policy allowing a woman to work as long into her pregnancy as possible and use accumulated sick and annual leave after the birth.

Alene B. Duerk, director of the Navy Nurse Corps, became the first female admiral in United States History.

1973
Two women joined the Criminal Code Revision Committee.

The U.S. Supreme Court made two decisions invalidating portions of the 1969 Arkansas abortion law: requirement of four months residence prior to the abortion and needing the certification of three doctors as to the need for an abortion.

The Arkansas Family Planning Act was enacted which permitted physicians to release birth control information and devices to anyone, and for voluntary sterilization of anyone over eighteen and those under eighteen who are married.

“Amendments to the Employment Security Law removed discrimination clauses related to disqualifications for pregnancy and leaving the labor force to move with a husband.”

Governor Bumpers issued an executive order directing state agencies to work towards ending gender discrimination in hiring and promotions (after the problem was widely publicized in newspapers).

Congress approved the Women’s Education Act to fund women’s studies programs and aid in eliminating sexism from all aspects of education.

Pittsburgh Press v. Human Relations Commission stopped the act of running sex segregated want ads in newspapers.

Roe v. Wade allowed women to decide whether or not to terminate a pregnancy.

The Federal Home Loan Board ended discrimination against women applying for mortgage loans.(This is very interesting since one of our survey respondents had to get a letter from her doctor stating she could not have children before the bank would give her a loan!)

1974
The Equal Credit Opportunity Act is passed, credit can no longer be denied on the basis of gender or marital status.

NOW created the Project on Equal Education Rights to oversee enforcement of Title 9.

The League of Women Voters allowed full membership to men.

1975
The National Women’s Heath Network was founded.

Congress passed a bill allowing women admission to the nation’s military academies beginning in 1976. The U.S. Coast Guard Academy was the first to do so (1975).

1976
Women won 13 of 32 Rhodes Scholarships awarded to Americans, the first time the scholarships were open to women.

1978
National Coalition Against Violence was founded for battered women.

The ratification deadline for the ERA is extended to June 30, 1982 by a 60-36 vote in the Senate.

Sonia Johnson, a leader of Mormons for the Equal Rights Amendment, was excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Congress passed the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act, which included services for displaced homemakers.

1979
23.5% of medical school graduates were women verses 8.4% in 1970.

28.5% of law school graduates were women versus 5.4% in 1970.

Ruth Patterson, Myrtle Jackson, Jennifer Mays at campaign of T.E. Patterson for State Representative, 1970.
Courtesy of the Arkansas History Commission

1980’s
1980
51.5% of adult women worked outside the home.

The Defense Department granted full military veteran status to 16,000 women who served in the WACs during World War II.

Sexual harassment becomes prohibited by regulations from Eleanor Holmes, chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Ford Motor Company, in a job discrimination suit settlement, agreed to pay $23 million for development of special job training programs for women and minorities and agreed to hire women for 30 percent of openings for nonskilled workers.

1981
The U.S. Supreme Court, in Rostker v. Goldberg, that the Constitution allowed for women to be excluded from draft registration and from the draft itself.

The EEC reported women’s earnings are 60 percent behind men’s. Sandra Day O’Conner became the first female Supreme Court Justice.

1982
A federal court required United Airlines to rehire 1,800 female flight attendants who lost their jobs when they married. In a different case, Trans World Airlines flight attendants who were fired before 1971 because of pregnancy were entitled to back pay and retroactive seniority.

President Reagan established National Women’s History Week.

The ERA failed in states ratification, falling short of the necessary 38 states.

1983
Sally Ride became the first American woman to go into space. She spent six days as a member of the Challenger.

1984
Reagan signed a bill requiring companies to withhold wages from parents who fall behind in child support one month.

Geraldine A. Ferraro was nominated as vice-president to run with Mondale on the democratic ticket, the first woman to run on a ticket for one of the two major political parties. Reagan signed a bill allowing former spouses of federal employees to received federal benefits.

1985
53.4% of women with preschool aged children worked outside the home.

The EEC “rejected any cases of job discrimination based on comparable worth.”

Mid 1980’s
Four percent of unmarried eighteen-year-old white teens were mothers compared to 27% of unmarried black teens.

1986
In Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, the U.S. Supreme Court defined sexual harassment as a type of discrimination, illegal under federal law.

1987
The U.S. Supreme Court, unanimously, allowed states the right to deny unemployment benefits to women who leave their employment because of pregnancy.

Mrs. Irene Holcomb goes over a lesson with Anita Hampton and Zena Henson. Little Rock School District Transition School, 1984
Courtesy of the Arkansas History Commission

1990's
1990
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints dropped “rituals offensive to women.”

Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (in a first for insurance companies) announced it would finance $10 million dollars in experimental breast cancer treatment.

1992
In Automobile Workers v. Johnson Controls, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled employers cannot bar pregnant women from jobs where they may be exposed to hazardous materials.

The U.S. House of Representatives approved a budget that would allow women in the Air Force, Navy, and Marines to fly combat aircraft for the first time.

1998           
In Arkansas there were:

• 11 Chancery and Circuit Court judges were women
  
• 3 of 12 Court of Appeals Judges were women
  
• 1 of 8 U.S. District Court Judges was a woman
  
• 1 female Senior U.S. District Judge
  
• 2 female Prosecuting Attorneys

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