# Feminism and the fight for women's rights From Wollstonecraft and Seneca Falls through suffrage and the waves of feminism to the present. *This story part of: State, law, and coercion* *Kikuyu initiation rites and the 1929 crisis parallel this story* ## c. September 1791 — Olympe de Gouges writes the Declaration of the Rights of Woman During the French Revolution, Olympe de Gouges published a Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen, demanding that the new rights of man apply to women too. She was later guillotined during the Terror, and her text became an early landmark of feminist thought. ## 1792 — Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Woman Mary Wollstonecraft argued that women were not naturally inferior to men but only seemed so because they were denied education. Her book is a founding text of feminist thought. ## 19 July 1848 — Seneca Falls Convention launches U.S. women's movement The first women's rights convention in the United States issued a declaration demanding equality, including the right to vote. It marked the start of an organized American feminist movement. ## 29 May 1851 — Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a Woman" speech Formerly enslaved abolitionist Sojourner Truth spoke on the rights of Black women at a women's convention. Her words linked the fights against slavery and for women's rights. ## 10 December 1869 — Wyoming Territory becomes first to let women vote Wyoming Territory granted women the right to vote and hold office, the first lasting law of its kind in the United States. When Wyoming became a state in 1890, it kept the provision, decades ahead of national suffrage. ## 18 August 1882 — Married Women's Property Act lets British wives own property The law let married women in England own and control their own property and earnings, which a husband had previously absorbed. It was a major step toward women's legal and economic independence. ## 19 September 1893 — New Zealand grants women the vote New Zealand becomes the first self-governing country to grant women the right to vote in national elections. The victory becomes a landmark for suffrage movements worldwide. ## 10 October 1903 — Women's Social and Political Union founded Emmeline Pankhurst founded the WSPU, whose militant suffragettes used protest, hunger strikes, and civil disobedience to demand the vote. Their campaign faced arrests and force-feeding but kept suffrage in the headlines. ## 25 March 1911 — Triangle Shirtwaist fire spurs labor reform A fire at a garment factory killed 146 workers, most of them young immigrant women trapped behind locked doors. The disaster fueled the women-led labor movement and led to new workplace safety laws. ## 4 June 1913 — Emily Davison killed at the Epsom Derby Suffragette Emily Davison ran onto the racecourse and was struck by the King's horse, dying of her injuries days later. Whether she meant to sacrifice her life is still debated, but her death became a rallying symbol for the vote. ## 6 February 1918 — Britain gives some women the vote The Representation of the People Act let women over 30 who met property rules vote for the first time. Full equal voting rights followed in 1928. ## 18 August 1920 — Nineteenth Amendment gives U.S. women the vote The Nineteenth Amendment barred states from denying the vote based on sex, enfranchising millions of women after a 70-year campaign. Many Black women, however, remained blocked from voting by racist state laws. ## 2 July 1928 — Britain grants women equal voting rights The Equal Franchise Act gave women the vote on the same terms as men, from age 21, ending the property and age limits of the 1918 law. It completed the long British campaign for women's suffrage. ## 1949 — Simone de Beauvoir publishes The Second Sex Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex argued that women were treated as the "other" against a male norm and that femininity was made by society, not nature. The book deeply shaped feminist theory and the second wave to come. ## 9 May 1960 — FDA approves the birth control pill U.S. regulators approved the first oral contraceptive for birth control, giving women new control over whether and when to have children. The pill reshaped women's lives, work, and the wider sexual and feminist movements. ## 19 February 1963 — The Feminine Mystique sparks the second wave Betty Friedan's book named the frustration of women confined to domestic roles and helped launch second-wave feminism. It pushed millions of women to seek work, education, and equality. ## 10 June 1963 — U.S. Equal Pay Act targets wage discrimination The Equal Pay Act made it illegal to pay women less than men for the same work. It was an early legal win of the second-wave movement, though pay gaps persisted. ## 30 June 1966 — National Organization for Women is founded Betty Friedan and others founded NOW to press for women's equality in law and work. It became the largest feminist organization in the United States. ## 23 June 1972 — Title IX bans sex discrimination in education Title IX barred sex discrimination in schools that receive federal funds, opening doors in academics and sports for women and girls. It reshaped opportunity in American education. ## 22 January 1973 — Roe v. Wade recognizes a right to abortion The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution protected a woman's right to choose abortion. The decision was a landmark of the women's movement and was overturned nearly 50 years later. ## 24 October 1975 — Icelandic women's strike halts the country About 90 percent of Icelandic women refused to work, cook, or care for children for a day to show how much the country depended on them. The strike helped push Iceland toward equal-rights laws and, later, the first elected woman president. ## c. April 1977 — Combahee River Collective Statement shapes Black feminism A group of Black feminists released a statement arguing that race, class, gender, and sexuality oppress people at the same time. Their idea of interlocking oppression laid the groundwork for later theories of intersectionality. ## 18 December 1979 — UN adopts the CEDAW women's rights treaty The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women set an international standard for women's equality. Often called a bill of rights for women, it has been ratified by most nations. ## 30 June 1982 — Equal Rights Amendment falls short of ratification The Equal Rights Amendment, which would have written sex equality into the U.S. Constitution, failed to be ratified by enough states before its deadline. A conservative campaign led by Phyllis Schlafly helped defeat it, and the amendment's status remains disputed today. ## 1989 — Crenshaw coins the term "intersectionality" Legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw coined "intersectionality" to describe how Black women face overlapping racism and sexism that neither alone explains. The concept became central to third-wave feminism and later social movements. ## 15 September 1995 — Beijing Declaration sets a global agenda for women At the UN's Fourth World Conference on Women, 189 nations adopted a platform for women's rights and empowerment. Hillary Clinton's declaration that "women's rights are human rights" became its rallying cry. ## 9 October 2012 — Malala Yousafzai shot for defending girls' education The Taliban shot 15-year-old Malala Yousafzai for campaigning for girls' right to go to school. She survived, became a global voice for girls' education, and in 2014 was the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize. ## 15 October 2017 — #MeToo goes viral against sexual abuse The #MeToo hashtag spread worldwide as millions shared experiences of sexual harassment and assault, building on activist Tarana Burke's earlier work. It brought down powerful abusers and forced a reckoning across many industries. ## c. 2019 — Feminists split over sex and gender A bitter debate grew within feminism over whether the movement should center biological sex or gender identity, especially on the rights of transgender people. Some feminists say sex-based protections are at stake, while others say trans women must be fully included; both sides claim the mantle of women's rights. The dispute remains unresolved and deeply contested. ## 24 June 2022 — Dobbs ruling overturns Roe v. Wade The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson that there is no constitutional right to abortion, overturning Roe v. Wade after nearly 50 years. The decision let states ban abortion and reopened one of the most divisive debates in American life.