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Sung and unsung, more women have contributed significantly to American history than can be contained within a single table. The following is a representative survey of some of the most important women in American history.
- Salem, Massachusetts
History of Salem, Massachusetts. Salem, seat of Essex...
- Mother Jones
Mother Jones. Born on August 1, 1837, to past generations of...
- Watergate
Watergate Scandal. Before the summer of 1972, the word...
- Amelia Earhart
Early Years Amelia Mary Earhart was born on July 24, 1897,...
- Sacajawea
Sacajawea. Sacajawea (Bird Woman) was the Indian woman who...
- Salem, Massachusetts
- Abigail Adams, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth
- Suffrage Movement, 19th Amendment
- Rosa Parks, Civil Rights, Equal Pay
- Title Ix, Battle of The Sexes
- Sandra Day O'Connor, Sally Ride
- Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris
- Sources
March 31, 1776: In a letter to her husband, Founding Father John Adams, future first lady Abigail Adams makes a plea to him and the Continental Congressto “remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if they cou...
May 15, 1869: Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton found the National Woman Suffrage Association, which coordinated the national suffrage movement. In 1890, the group teamed with the American Woman Suffrage Association to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association. October 16, 1916:Margaret Sanger opens the first birth control cli...
Dec. 1, 1955: Black seamstress Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Ala. The move helps launch the civil rights movement. May 9, 1960: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves the first commercially produced birth control pill in the world, allowing women to control when and if they have children. Mar...
June 23, 1972: Title IX of the Education Amendments is signed into law by President Richard Nixon. It states “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance." Jan....
July 7, 1981: Sandra Day O’Connor is sworn in by President Ronald Reaganas the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. She retires in 2006, after serving for 24 years. June 18 1983: Flying on the Space Shuttle Challenger, Sally Ridebecomes the first American woman in space. July 12, 1984: Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale names...
Jan. 4, 2007: U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) becomesthe first female speaker of the House. In 2019, she reclaims the title, becoming the first lawmaker to hold the office two times in more than 50 years. Jan. 24, 2013: The U.S. military removes a ban against women serving in combat positions. July 26, 2016: Hillary Clinton becomes the first woma...
Timeline of Legal History of Women in the United States, National Women’s History Alliance Seneca Falls Convention, Library of Congress Sojourner Truth’s "Ain’t I a Woman?” Sojourner Truth Memorial Woman Suffrage, National Geographic Society Suffragists Unite: National American Woman Suffrage Association, National Women’s History Museum A record nu...
Ann Bassett. Anne Bassett (1878-1956) – The daughter of ranch owners at Brown’s Hole, near the Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah border, Bassett became a “member” of Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch.
- Bella Abzug (1920-1998) Daughter to Russian Jewish immigrants, Abzug was a lawyer specializing in labor and civil rights in 1950s and ’60s New York. With the start of the Vietnam War she became a vocal member of the anti-war movement.
- Abigail Adams (1744-1818) As wife to President John Adams, and her husband’s confidante and adviser, she opposed slavery and pushed for women’s rights and education.
- Julia C. Addington (1829-1875) Julia Addington became the first woman elected to public office in Iowa in 1869 when she became the Superintendent of Schools in Mitchell County—which, though records from the time may be incomplete, likely makes her the first woman ever elected to office in the U.S. When some challenged the legitimacy of her election because she was a woman, the state Attorney General ruled that she was allowed to continue in her role, setting an important precedent.
- Madeleine Albright (1937- ) In 1997, she became the first woman to be Secretary of State, and the highest-ranking woman ever in the U.S. Government. She knew the importance of that work: her Czech parents fled Nazi Germany in 1939, and she became a naturalized citizen while in college, but, having been raised Catholic, it was only as an adult that she learned her family was Jewish and that many relatives had died in the Holocaust.
- Chrissy Clark
- Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888). Alcott worked to support her family through financial difficulties at an early age, and managed to write “Little Women,” one of the most famous novels in American history.
- Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906). Anthony played a pivotal role in the women’s suffrage movement. In 1878, she and co-workers presented an amendment to Congress that would give women the right to vote.
- Clara Barton (1821-1912). Barton founded the American Red Cross and served as its first president. She was a nurse during the Civil War for the Union Army.
- Nellie Bly (1864-1904). A journalist, she launched a new kind of investigative reporting. She is best known for her record-breaking trip around the world by ship in 72 days.
Mar 1, 2008 · In honor of women's history month, we have chosen one significant event from each decade over the past century. Each event recognizes the achievements of women in all facets of life who...
Mar 6, 2020 · In addition, to shed light on other lesser-known female history-makers, we asked historians to name a woman from the American past whose story should be better known. Here are their picks.
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