Chronology

Selected Events for Gender Issues
Year	Month	Day	Event	Related Resource
1960	May	11	Searle receives approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to sell Enovid as a birth control pill	Link
1961	November	20	In Hoyt v Florida, the U.S. Supreme Court upholds a Florida statute which provides that no female will be called for jury duty unless she has registered to be placed on the jury duty list.	Link
1963			The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan becomes a best seller.
	May	28	The Equal Pay Act is passed by the U.S. Congress to provide equal by for equal pay for equal work without discrimination on the basis of sex.	Link
	October		The report of the President's Commission on the Status of Women, entitled American Women, is published, documenting pervasive sex discrimination and the absence of support systems.
	December	10	Maria Goeppert-Mayer is the first American women to win a Nobel Prize for physics, and the second woman of any nationality to receive the award. Marie Curie was the first.
1964	July	03	The 1964 Civil Rights Act is passed by Congress and signed by President Lyndon Johnson.	Link
	July	13	Republican Senator, Margaret Chase Smith becomes the first women to run for President.	Link
	December	07	The Supreme Court rules that a Florida law barring racially mixed unmarried couples from living together is an unconstitutional violation of the 14th Amendment.
1965	June	07	In Griswold v. Connecticut, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidates a Connecticut law forbidding the use of contraceptives on the ground that a right of "marital privacy," is implicitly protected by the Bill of Rights.	Link
1966	August		In White v. Crook, a 3 judge federal court declares an Alabama law that excludes women from state juries to be unconstitutional.
	October	19	The founding conference of the National Organization for Women (NOW) is held in Washington, DC. Betty Friedan is elected president.	Link
1967			NOW became the first national organization to call for the legalization of abortion and for the repeal of all anti-abortion laws.
	April	25	Colorado becomes the first state to liberalize its abortion law, along lines suggested by the American Law Institute.
	June		At the Annual Meeting of the American Medical Association the House of Delagates vote to support abortions under certain conditions.
	October	13	Presidential Executive Order 11375 amends E.O. 11246 to prohibit sex discrimination in employment by the federal government and by contractors doing business with the government.	Link
	October	31	A radical women's group formed in New York introduces a more radical turn in the women's movement along with the technique of "consciousness raising." The group is later called the New York Radical Women.
	November	07	The United Nations General Assembly adopts the Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.
	November	08	President Johnson signs public law 90-130 which retains combat limitations but allowed women in the Armed Forces equal promotion and retirements rights, and removes the 2% restriction on the number of women allowed to serve.
1968			Women's Liberation groups emerge as a reaction to the male dominated student movement.
	January	15	The Jeanette Rankin Brigade, a coalition of women's peace groups, demonstrates at the opening of the U.S. Congress against the Vietnam War.
	February	03	The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission rules that sex is not a Bona Fide Occupational Qualification (BFOQ) for the job of airline flight attendent.
	February	28	In U.S. ex. rel. v Robinso, the Federal District Court strikes down the Connecuticut statute requiring longer prison sentences for women than for men as unconstitutional.
	August	05	The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission rules that it violates the Civil Rights Act for employers to place separate male and female help wanted ads in newspapers except where sex is a Bona Fide Occupational Qualification (BFOQ).
	September	07	The Miss America Beauty Contest in Atlantic City is targeted by Women's Liberation groups and members of the New York NOW.
	November	04	Shirley Chisholm becomes the first black woman elected to the House of Representatives. She joins 9 other women.	Link
	November	22	In Rosenfeld v. Southern Pacific Co., the federal district court rules that Title VII invalidates restrictive California protective legislation that restrictes women from working overtime and from lifting weights over the proscribed limit.
	November	28	The first national Women's Liberation Conference held in Chicago draws more than 200 participants from 37 states.
1969	June	28	The modern gay and lesbian rights movement begins when New York City police enter the Stonewall Inn to harass gay patrons who fight back.	Link
	August	08	President Nixon issues Executive Order 11478 which requires Affirmative Action programs in Federal employment.
1972	March		In Eisenstadt v. Baird, a Massachusetts statue restricting the distribution of contraceptives to unmarried persons is invalidated by the U.S. Supreme Court as a violation of the rights of single persons under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.	Link
	March	22	The Equal Rights Amendment is approved by the full Senate without changes — 84-8. Senator Sam Ervin and Representative Emanuel Celler succeed in setting an arbitrary time limit of seven years for ratification. The Amendment ultimately failed to achieve ratification by the required thirty-eight states, even though the deadline for ratification was extended to June 30, 1982. The defeat of the era was spearheaded by Phyllis Schlafly and her organization Stop ERA.
	June	23	Congress passes the Education Amendments of 1972, including Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in educational institutions which receive federal funds.
1973	January	22	A U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade declares invalid all state laws restricting abortion in the 1st three months of preganancy.	Link
	October	24	Billie Jean King defeats Bobby Riggs in "The Battle of the Sexes" in the Houston Astrodome.	Link