Timeline Of Women's Legal Rights In The United States (other Than Voting)

Timeline of women's legal rights in the United States (other than voting) represents formal legal changes and reforms regarding women's rights in the United States. That includes actual law reforms as well as other formal changes, such as reforms through new interpretations of laws by precedents. For such things outside as well as in the United States, see ''Timeline of women's legal rights (other than voting).'' The right to vote is exempted from the timeline: for that right, see ''Timeline of women's suffrage in the United States''. The timeline also excludes ideological changes and events within feminism and antifeminism: for that, see ''Timeline of feminism in the United States''.

Before the 19th century

; 1641
* Massachusetts: The 1641 Body of Liberties of the Massachusetts Bay colonists declared that a married woman should be "free from bodilie correction or stripes by her husband."
; 1662
* Virginia colony: The Virginia colony passed 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.Taunya Lovell Banks, "Dangerous Woman: Elizabeth Key's Freedom Suit – Subjecthood and Racialized Identity in Seventeenth Century Colonial Virginia"
41 ''Akron Law Review'' 799 (2008), Digital Commons Law, University of Maryland Law School, accessed 21 April 2009 This was in contradiction to English common law for English subjects, which based a child's status on that of the father.
; 1664
* Maryland: Maryland declared that any Englishwoman who married a slave had to live as a slave of her husband’s master.
; 1718
* Province of Pennsylvania (now U.S. state of Pennsylvania): Married women allowed to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse.

19th century

; 1820–1900
* Primarily through the efforts of physicians in the American Medical Association and legislators, most abortions in the U.S. were outlawed.
; 1821
* Maine: Married women allowed to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse.
* Connecticut: A law targeted apothecaries who sold "poisons" to women for purposes of inducing an abortion.
; 1827
* Illinois: An 1827 Illinois law prohibited the sale of drugs that could induce abortions. The law classed these medications as a "poison". The 1827 law was the first in the nation to impose criminal penalties in connection with abortion before quickening.
* New York: The first statute to criminalize abortion in New York State was enacted in 1827. This law made post-quickening abortions a felony and made pre-quickening abortions a misdemeanor.
; 1829
* New York: New York made post-quickening abortions a felony and pre-quickening abortions a misdemeanor.
; 1835
* Arkansas: Married women allowed to own (but not control) property in their own name.
* Massachusetts: Married women allowed to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse.
* Tennessee: Married women allowed to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse.
; 1839
* Mississippi: The Married Women's Property Act 1839 grants married women the right to own (but not control) property in her own name.
; 1840
* Maine: Married women allowed to own (but not control) property in their own name.
; 1841
* Maryland: Married women allowed to own (but not control) property in their own name.
; 1842
* New Hampshire: Married women allowed to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse.
; 1843
* Kentucky: Married women allowed to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse.
; 1844
* Maine: Married women granted separate economy.
* Maine: Married women granted trade license.
* Massachusetts: Married Women granted separate economy.
; 1845
* New York: Married women granted patent rights.
* New York: New York passed a statute that said women who had abortions could be given a prison sentence of three months to a year. They were one of the few states at the time to have laws punishing women for getting abortions.
* Florida: Married women allowed to own (but not control) property in their own name.
; 1846
* Alabama: Married women allowed to own (but not control) property in their own name.
* Kentucky: Married women allowed to own (but not control) property in their own name.
* Ohio: Married women allowed to own (but not control) property in their own name.
* Michigan: Married women allowed to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse.
; 1848
* New York: Married Women's Property Act grant married women separate economy.
* Pennsylvania: Married women granted separate economy.
* Rhode Island: Married women granted separate economy.
; 1849
* Alabama: Married women allowed to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse.
* Connecticut: Married women allowed to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse.
* Missouri: Married women allowed to own (but not control) property in their own name.
* South Carolina: Married women allowed to own (but not control) property in their own name.

1850–1874

; 1850s
* Illinois: When Illinois opened its first hospital for the mentally ill in 1851, the state legislature passed a law that within two years of its passage was amended to require a public hearing before a person could be committed against his or her will. There was one exception, however: a husband could have his wife committed without either a public hearing or her consent.
; 1850
* California: Married Women's Property Act grant married women separate economy.
* Wisconsin: Married Women's Property Act grant married women separate economy.
* Oregon: Unmarried women are allowed to own land.Richard J Evans (1979). Kvinnorörelsens historia i Europa, USA, Australien och Nya Zeeland 1840–1920 (The Feminists: Women's Emancipation Movements in Europe, America and Australasia, 1840–1920) Helsingborg: LiberFörlag Stockholm. (Swedish)
* Tennessee: Tennessee became the first state in the United States to explicitly outlaw wife beating.
; 1852
* New Jersey: Married women granted separate economy.
* Indiana: Married women allowed to own (but not control) property in their own name.
* Wisconsin: Married women allowed to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse.
; 1854
* Massachusetts: Married women granted separate economy.
; 1855
* Michigan: Married women granted separate economy.
; 1856
* Connecticut: Married women granted patent rights.
; 1857
* Maine: Married women granted the right to control their own earnings.
* Oregon: Married women allowed to own (but not control) property in their own name.
* Oregon: Married women allowed to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse.
; 1859
* Kansas: Married Women's Property Act granted married women separate economy.
; 1860
* New York: New York's Married Women's Property Act of 1860 passed. Married women granted the right to control their own earnings.
* Maryland: Married women granted separate economy.
* Maryland: Married women granted the right to control their earnings.
* Maryland: Married women granted trade license.
* Massachusetts: Married women granted trade licenses.
; 1861
* Illinois: Married women granted separate economy.
* Ohio: Married women granted separate economy.
* Illinois: Married women granted control over their earnings.
* Ohio: Married women granted control over their earnings.
; 1862
* New York: New York's Married Women's Property Act of 1860 was 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. Also, the parts of the 1860 law that made husbands and wives equal in realty in cases of intestacy were overturned.
; 1864
* North Carolina: The Supreme Court of North Carolina decided, in the case ''State v. Black'', that, "A 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."
; 1865
* Louisiana: Married women allowed to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse.
; 1867
* Illinois: In 1867, the State of Illinois passed a "Bill for the Protection of Personal Liberty" which guaranteed all people accused of insanity, including wives, had the right to a public hearing.
* Illinois: Illinois passed a bill in 1867 that made abortion and attempted abortion a criminal offense.
* Alabama: Married women granted separate economy.
* New Hampshire: Married women granted separate economy.
; 1868
* North Carolina: Married women granted separate economy.
* Arkansas: Married women granted trade license.
* Kansas: Married women granted separate economy.
* Kansas: Married women granted trade license.
* Kansas: Married women granted control over their earnings.
* South Carolina: Married women allowed to own (but not control) property in their own name.
* Georgia: Married women allowed to own (but not control) property in their own name.
* New York City: Susannah Lattin's death led to an investigation that resulted in regulating maternity clinics and adoptions in New York City in 1868.
; 1869
* Minnesota: Married women granted separate economy.
* Georgia: Married women granted separate economy.
* South Carolina: Married women granted separate economy.
* South Carolina: Married women granted trade license.
* Tennessee: Married women granted separate economy.
* Iowa: Married women granted control over their earnings.
* Illinois and Massachusetts: In 1869 legislation was passed in Illinois and Massachusetts allowing married women equal rights to property and custody of their children.
; Circa 1870
* Illinois: Around 1870, Illinois passed another law banning the sale of drugs that could cause induced abortions. The law is notable because it allowed an exception for "the written prescription of some well-known and respectable practicing physician".
; 1870
* Wyoming Territory: Justice Howe of the Wyoming Territory saw fit to extend women the rights to sit on a jury in 1870. This was put into action and women served on gender-mixed juries with men for the next year. The first woman to serve on a jury was Eliza Stewart Boyd. But once Howe was replaced by his successor in 1871, women were no longer called upon to serve on juries. (1870, 1890–1892).
; 1871
* Mississippi: Married women granted separate economy.
* Mississippi: Married women granted trade license.
* Mississippi: Married women granted control over their earnings.
* Arizona: Married women granted separate economy.
* Arizona: Married women granted trade license.
; 1872
* New York: New York state made it a penalty to perform an abortion, with a criminal sentence of between 4 and 20 years in prison.
* Pennsylvania: Married women granted control over their earnings.
* California: Married women granted separate economy.
* Montana: Married women granted separate economy.
* California: Married women granted trade license.
* California: Married women granted control over their earnings.
* Wisconsin: Married women granted control over their earnings.
; 1873
* Arkansas: Married women granted separate economy.
* Kentucky: Married women granted separate economy.
* North Carolina: Married women granted control over their earnings.
* Kentucky: Married women granted trade license.
* Arkansas: Married women granted control over their earnings.
* Delaware: Married women granted control over their earnings.
* Iowa: Married women granted separate economy.
* Nevada: Married women granted separate economy.
* Iowa: Married women granted trade license.
* Nevada: Married women granted trade license.
* Nevada: Married women granted control over their earnings.
* The ''Comstock Law'' was a federal act passed by the United States Congress on March 3, 1873, 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:Horowitz, Helen Lefkowitz. Rereading Sex. New York: Random House, 2002.
** 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. Half of the states passed similar anti-obscenity statutes that also banned possession and sale of obscene materials, including contraceptives.Beisel, Nicola. Imperiled Innocents. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1997.
: 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.
* '' Bradwell v. State of Illinois'', 83 U.S. 130 (1873), 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 also 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.
; 1874
* Massachusetts: Married women granted control over their earnings.
* New Jersey: Married women granted control over their earnings.
* Rhode Island: Married women granted control over their earnings.
* New Jersey: Married women granted trade licenses.
* Colorado: Married women granted separate economy.
* Illinois: Married women granted trade license.
* Minnesota: Married women granted trade license.
* Montana: Married women granted control over their earnings.
* Montana: Married women granted trade license.
* Colorado: Married women granted trade license.
* Colorado: Married women granted control over their earnings.

1875–1899

; 1875
* The Page Act of 1875 (Sect. 141, 18 Stat. 477, 3 March 1875) was the first restrictive federal immigration law in the United States, and effectively prohibited the entry of Chinese women, marking the end of open borders.Olivia B. Waxman
"How Trump's 'Shithole Countries' Comment Echoes a Century of American Immigration Policy"
''Time Magazine'', Jan. 12, 2018. The law technically barred immigrants considered "undesirable," 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. The Act was later repealed.
* New Hampshire: Married women granted trade licenses.
* Wyoming: Married women granted separate economy.
* Wyoming: Married women granted control over their earnings.
* Wyoming: Married women granted trade license.
; 1877
* Connecticut: Married women granted control over their earnings.
* Connecticut: Married women granted trade licenses.
* Dakota: Married women granted separate economy.
* Dakota: Married women granted control over their earnings.
* Dakota: Married women granted trade license.
* Wisconsin: On March 22, 1877, the Wisconsin legislature enacted a law which prohibited courts from denying admission to the bar on the basis of sex. The bill had been drafted by Lavinia Goodell and she worked with Speaker of the Wisconsin State Assembly John B. Cassoday for it to pass.
; 1878
* Virginia: Married women granted separate economy.
; 1879
* Indiana: Married women granted separate economy.
* Indiana: Married women granted control over their earnings.
* 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." – California Constitution, Article I, §8 (1879).
* A law was enacted allowing qualified female attorneys to practice in any federal court in the United States.
; 1880
* The case '' Miles v. United States'', established that a second wife may testify as to her husband's bigamy, because their marriage is not ''de jure''.
* Oregon: Married women granted trade license.
* Oregon: Married women granted control over their earnings.
; 1881
* Vermont: Married women granted separate economy.
* Vermont: Married women granted trade license.
* Nebraska: Married women granted separate economy.
* Nebraska: Married women granted trade license.
* Nebraska: Married women granted control over their earnings.
* Florida: Married women allowed to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse.
; 1882
* ''Lindon v. First National Bank'', 10 F. 894 (W.D. Pa. 1882), is one of the earliest precedent-setting US federal court cases involving common law name change. A woman who had changed her last name to one that was not her husband's original surname was trying to claim control over her inheritance. The court ruled in her favor. This set forth many things. By common law, one may lawfully change their name and be "known and recognized" by that new name. Also, one may enter into any kinds of contracts in their new adopted name. Contracts include employment (see ''Coppage v. Kansas'' 236 U.S. 1), and one can be recognized legally in court in their new name.
; 1883:
* Washington Territory: Women in the Washington Territory were granted jury service rights, but those rights were rescinded in 1887 due to a change in the territory's Supreme Court.VanBurkleo, Sandra F. 2015. ''Gender Remade: Citizenship, Suffrage, and Public Power in the New Northwest, 1879-1912.'' New York: Cambridge University Press.
; 1887
* Washington Territory: Women’s jury service rights were rescinded in 1887 due to a change in the territory's Supreme Court.
* Idaho: Married women granted separate economy.
* Idaho: Married women granted trade license.
* The Edmunds–Tucker Act disincorporated both the LDS Church and the Perpetual Emigration Fund on the grounds that they fostered polygamy. The act prohibited the practice of polygamy and punished 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.L. Rex Sears, "Punishing the Saints for Their "Peculiar Institution": Congress on the Constitutional Dilemmas," 2001 Utah L. Rev. 581

-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.

- Disenfranchised women (who had been enfranchised by the Territorial legislature in 1870).Women's Suffrage in Utah
Jean Bickmore White, Utah History Encyclopedia

– 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.
Edmunds–Tucker Act: Section 25 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.The practice of polygamy: legitimate free exercise of religion or legitimate public menace? Revisiting Reynolds in light of modern constitutional jurisprudence
Richard A. Vazquez, Journal of Legislation & Public Policy (New York University School of Law), Volume 5, Number 1, Fall 2001Past and Present Proposed Amendments to the United States Constitution Regarding Marriage
Edward Stein, Washington University Law Quarterly, Volume 82, Number 3, 2004
; 1889
* State of Washington: Married women granted separate economy.
* State of Washington: Married women granted control over their earnings.
* State of Washington: Married women granted trade license.
; 1890
* The case '' Bassett v. United States'', had a ruling that polygamous wives can be required to testify as they are not legally wives.
* 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." – Wyoming Constitution, Articles I and VI (1890).
; 1894
* Louisiana: Married women granted trade license.
; 1895
* South Carolina: Separate economy allowed for married women.
* Utah: Married women granted separate economy.
* State of Washington: Married women granted control over their earnings.
* State of Washington: Married women granted trade license.
; 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." – Utah Constitution, Article IV, §1 (1896).
; 1898
* Utah: The Utah State Legislature granted women permission to serve on juries in 1898. Even though 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.

20th century

1900–1939

; 1907
* Section 3 of the Expatriation Act of 1907 provided for loss of citizenship by American women who married aliens.Tsiang, I-Mien (1942). ''The question of expatriation in America prior to 1907.'' Johns Hopkins Press. p. 114. OCLC 719352. 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 would retain their American citizenship automatically if they did not explicitly renounce; women residing abroad would have the option to retain American citizenship by registration with a US.consul.Tsiang, I-Mien (1942). ''The question of expatriation in America prior to 1907.'' Johns Hopkins Press. p. 115. OCLC 719352. The aim of these provisions was to prevent cases of multiple nationality among women.
; 1908
* '' Muller v. Oregon'', , was a landmark decision in United States Supreme Court history, as it was used to justify both sex discrimination and usage of labor laws during the time period. The case 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.
* New York City: The Sullivan Ordinance was a municipal law passed on January 21, 1908, in New York City by the board of aldermen, barring the management of a public place from allowing women to smoke within their venue.Brandt, Allan M. (2007). ''The Cigarette Century''. New York: Basic Books, page 57. The mayor at the time, George B. McClellan Jr., vetoed the ordinance in February.
; 1910
* The ''White-Slave Traffic Act'', or the ''Mann Act'', is a United States federal law, passed June 25, 1910 (ch. 395, ; ''codified as amended at'' ). 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" has resulted in its being used to criminalize even consensual sexual behavior between adults. It was amended by Congress in 1978 and again in 1986.
; 1912
* Starting January 1, 1912, the Massachusetts government started to enforce a law that allowed women to work a maximum of 54 hours, rather than 56 hours. Ten days later, the women workers found out that pay had been reduced along with the cut in hours. There was a strike about it in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and mill owners soon decided to settle the strike, giving workers in Lawrence and throughout New England raises of up to 20 percent.
; 1915
* Section 3 of the Expatriation Act of 1907 provided for loss of citizenship by American women who married aliens. The Supreme Court first considered the Expatriation Act of 1907 in the 1915 case ''MacKenzie v. Hare''. The plaintiff, a suffragist named Ethel MacKenzie, was living in California, which since 1911 had extended the franchise to women. However, she had been denied voter registration by the respondent in his capacity as a Commissioner of the San Francisco Board of Election on the grounds of her marriage to a Scottish man. 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 " may be conceded that a change of citizenship cannot be arbitrarily imposed, that is, imposed without the concurrence of the citizen", but " e 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.
; 1918
* Margaret Sanger was charged under the New York law against disseminating contraceptive information. On appeal, her conviction was reversed on the grounds that contraceptive devices could legally be promoted for the cure and prevention of disease.
; 1921
* The Promotion of the Welfare and Hygiene of Maternity and Infancy Act, more commonly known as the Sheppard–Towner Act, was a 1921 U.S. Act of Congress that provided federal funding for maternity and child care. 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, 1921. This showed the political and economic power of women's issues since the bill was passed due to pressure from the newly formed Women's Joint Congressional Committee. 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.Moehling, Carolyn M., and Melissa A. Thomasson. "Saving Babies: The Contribution of Sheppard-Towner to the Decline in Infant Mortality in the 1920s." NBER Working Paper No. 17996 (2012): n. pag. NBER. Apr. 2012. Web. 8 Mar. 2013 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. Hence, 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. This opposition was in spite of the fact that the Pediatric Section of the AMA House of Delegates had endorsed the renewal of the act. 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. The Act was held unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1922 but the Act continued to be in force until 1929.
; 1922
* The Cable Act of 1922 (ch. 411, 42 Stat. 1021, "Married Women's Independent Nationality Act") was a United States federal law that reversed former immigration laws regarding marriage.(It is also known as the Married Women's Citizenship Act or the Women's Citizenship Act). 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 law repealed sections 3 and 4 of the Expatriation Act of 1907. However, the Cable Act of 1922 guaranteed independent female citizenship only to women who were married to an "alien eligible to naturalization." At the time of the law's passage, Asian aliens were not considered to be racially eligible for US citizenship. As such, the Cable Act only partially reversed previous policies and allowed women to retain their United States citizenship after marrying a foreigner who was not Asian. Thus, even after the Cable Act become effective, any woman who married an Asian alien lost her United States citizenship, just as under the previous law. The Cable Act also had other limitations: a woman could keep her United States citizenship after marrying a non-Asian alien if she stayed within the United States. However, if she married a foreigner and lived on foreign soil for two years, she could still lose her right to United States nationality.
; 1931
* An amendment to the Cable Act allowed females to retain their citizenship even if they married an Asian.
; 1932
* Michigan - In 1932, a law was passed that made abortion illegal in the state of Michigan.
; 1936
* In 1936, a federal appeals court ruled in ''United States v. One Package of Japanese Pessaries'' that the federal government could not interfere with doctors providing contraception to their patients.
* The Cable Act was repealed.

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."
; 1946
* North Carolina: A state constitutional amendment passed in North Carolina making women eligible to serve on a jury.
; 1947
* New Jersey: Wherever in this Constitution the term "person", "persons", "people" or any personal pronoun is used, the same shall be taken to include both sexes. – New Jersey Constitution, Article X, paragraph 4 (1947).
; 1948
* ''Goesaert v. Cleary'', 335 U.S. 464 (1948), was 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. Valentine Goesaert, the plaintiff in this case, 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.
* The Women's Armed Services Integration Act (Pub.L. 80–625, 62 Stat. 356, enacted June 12, 1948) is a United States law that 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.
; 1955
* Texas: It became legal for women to serve on juries in Texas.
; 1959
* California: In 1959 the Government Code Section 12947.5 (part of the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, passed in California) declared 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. Thus, the standard California FEHA discrimination complaint form now includes an option for "denied the right to wear pants".
; 1961
* '' Hoyt v. Florida'', 368 U.S. 57 (1961), was 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 just twenty-five minutes before finding her guilty. They sentenced her to 30 years of hard labor. Hoyt claimed that her all-male jury led to discrimination and unfair circumstances during her trial. In a unanimous opinion written by Justice John Marshall Harlan II, Supreme Court of the United States held the Florida jury selection statute was not discriminatory.
* Ohio: In ''State ex rel. Krupa v. Green'', 177 N.E.2d 616 (Ohio 1961), the Ohio appellate court allowed 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.
; 1963
* The Equal Pay Act of 1963 is a United States federal law amending the Fair Labor Standards Act, aimed at abolishing wage disparity based on sex (see Gender pay gap). It was signed into law on June 10, 1963, by John F. Kennedy as part of his New Frontier Program. In passing the bill, Congress stated that sex discrimination:
** 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 ection 206 of title 29 of the United States Codeshall 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 . . . . ref name=EEOC/> For the first nine years of the EPA, the requirement of equal pay for equal work did not extend to persons employed in an executive, administrative or professional capacity, or as an outside salesperson. Therefore, the EPA exempted white-collar women from the protection of equal pay for equal work. In 1972, Congress enacted the Education Amendments of 1972, which amended the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to expand the coverage of the EPA to these employees, by excluding the EPA from the professional workers exemption of the FLSA.
; 1964
* The decision in the 1964 case of '' People of California v. Hernandez'' by the California Supreme Court brought into question the validity of the rule that mistake as to the age of a female is no defense to a statutory rape charge. 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. 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 herecriminal intent is lacking," overruling and disapproving prior decisional law holding to the contrary, particularly ''People v. Ratz'' (1896) 115 Cal. 132. The decision set off a flurry of discussion among academics on whether "the uniform rule in the United states hata mistake as to the age of a female is not a defense to the crime of statutory rape," was now dead letter.
* 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 (see ). 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" as written in the Definitions section unde
42 U.S.C. §2000e(b)
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. The EEO Title VII has also been supplemented with legislation prohibiting pregnancy, age, and disability discrimination (''See'' Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, Age Discrimination in Employment Act, Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990).
: In very narrowly defined situations, an employer is permitted to discriminate on the basis of a protected trait where the trait is a bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ) reasonably necessary to the normal operation of that particular business or enterprise. To prove the bona fide occupational qualifications defense, an employer must prove three elements: a direct relationship between the protected trait and the ability to perform the duties of the job, the BFOQ relates to the "essence" or "central mission of the employer's business", and there is no less-restrictive or reasonable alternative (''United Automobile Workers v. Johnson Controls, Inc.'', 111 S.Ct. 1196). The Bona Fide Occupational Qualification exception is an extremely narrow exception to the general prohibition of discrimination based on protected traits (''Dothard v. Rawlinson'', 97 S.Ct. 2720). An employer or customer's preference for an individual of a particular religion is not sufficient to establish a Bona Fide Occupational Qualification ('' Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Kamehameha School – Bishop Estate'', 990 F.2d 458 (9th Cir. 1993)). There are partial and whole exceptions to Title VII for four types of employers:
:* Federal government; (Comment: The proscriptions against employment discrimination under Title VII are now applicable to certain federal government offices unde
42 U.S.C. Section 2000e-16

:* Federally recognized Native American tribes
:* Religious groups performing work connected to the group's activities, including associated education institutions;
:* Bona fide nonprofit private membership organizations.
::* The Bennett Amendment is a US labor law provision in the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, §703(h) passed to limit sex discrimination claims regarding pay to the rules in the Equal Pay Act of 1963. It says an employer can "differentiate upon the basis of sex" when it compensates employees "if such differentiation is authorized by" the Equal Pay Act.
; 1965
* ''Griswold v. Connecticut'', 381 U.S. 479 (1965), was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States protects the liberty of married couples to buy and use contraceptives without government restriction. 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"..
* The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) decided in 1965 that segregated job advertising—"Help Wanted Male" and "Help Wanted Female"—was permissible because it served "the convenience of readers". 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.
* New York: The New York State legislature amended their abortion-related statute in 1965 to allow for more therapeutic exceptions.
; 1966
* Pauli Murray and Dorothy Kenyon successfully argued ''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.
* Mississippi: The Mississippi legislature made abortion legal in cases of rape.
; 1967
* ''Executive Order 11375'', signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson on October 13, 1967, banned discrimination on the basis of sex in hiring and employment in both the United States federal workforce and on the part of government contractors.
* President Johnson signs Public Law 90-130, lifting grade restrictions and strength limitations on women in the United States military. Among other things, Public Law 90-130 amended 10 USC, eliminating the 2% ceiling on enlisted women. It also allowed female officers to be promoted to Colonel and above.
* Maryland: In ''Erie Exchange v. Lane'', 246 Md. 55 (1967) the Maryland 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.
* Section 230.3 Abortion (Tentative draft 1959, Official draft 1962) of the American Law Institute (ALI) Model Penal Code (MPC) was used as a model for abortion law reform legislation enacted in 13 states from 1967 to 1972. It would legalize abortion to preserve the health (whether physical or mental) of the mother, as well as 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.
* California, Colorado, and North Carolina: Colorado became the first state to decriminalize abortion in cases of rape, incest, or in which pregnancy would lead to permanent physical disability of the woman, and similar laws were passed in California and North Carolina.
; 1968
* ''King v. Smith'', 392 U.S. 309 (1968), was 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.
* The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission declared age restrictions on flight attendants’ employment to be illegal sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
* Georgia and Maryland: Georgia and Maryland reformed their abortion laws based on the American Law Institute (ALI) Model Penal Code (MPC).
* 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. However, in 1968 Judge Ernest A. Loveless of the Circuit Court of Prince Georges County ordered her to be granted the license. Kusner thus became the first licensed female jockey in the United States.
* Texas: The Marital Property Act of 1967, which gave married women the same property rights as their husbands, went into effect on January 1, 1968.
* Mississippi: On June 15, 1968, a law making women eligible to serve on state court juries was signed by Gov. John Bell Williams. Mississippi was the last state in America to allow this.
; 1969
* Arkansas, Delaware, Kansas, and New Mexico: Arkansas, Delaware, Kansas, and New Mexico reformed their abortion laws based on the American Law Institute (ALI) Model Penal Code (MPC).
* New Mexico: The New Mexico legislature passed 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.
* In the case '' Weeks v. Southern Bell'' (1969), Lorena Weeks claimed 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.
* California: In 1969, the California Supreme Court ruled in favor of abortion rights, after hearing an appeal launched by Dr. Leon Belous, who had been convicted of referring a woman to someone who could provide her with an illegal abortion; California's abortion law was declared unconstitutional in '' People v. Belous'' because it was vague and denied people due process.

1970–1999

; 1970
* In 1970, Eleanor Holmes Norton represented 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. The women won, and Newsweek agreed to allow women to be reporters. 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.
* The ''Title X Family Planning Program'', officially known as Public Law 91-572 or "Population Research and Voluntary Family Planning Programs", was enacted under President Richard Nixon in 1970 as part of the Public Health Service Act. Title X is the only federal grant program dedicated solely to providing individuals with comprehensive family planning and related preventive health services. Title X 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.Office of Population Affairs Clearinghouse
"Fact Sheet: Title X Family Planning Program."
January 2008. Its overall purpose is to promote positive birth outcomes and healthy families by allowing individuals to decide the number and spacing of their children. The other health services provided in Title X-funded clinics are integral in achieving this objective.U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Population Affairs

/ref>
* Congress removed references to contraception from federal anti-obscenity laws.
* '' Schultz v. Wheaton Glass Co.'', 421 F.2d 259 (3rd Cir. 1970) was a case heard before the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in 1970. It is an important case in studying the impact of the Bennett Amendment on Chapter VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, helping to define the limitations of equal pay for men and women. 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. 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.
* In ''Sprogis v. United Air Lines, Inc.'', a federal trial court ruled 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.
* Women were not allowed in New York's McSorley's Old Ale House until August 10, 1970, after National Organization for Women attorneys Faith Seidenberg and Karen DeCrow filed a discrimination case against the bar in District Court and won. 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. The suit, ''Seidenberg v. McSorleys' Old Ale House'' (1970, United States District Court, S. D. New York) established that, as a public place, the bar could not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution. The bar was then forced to admit women, but it did so "kicking and screaming." With the ruling allowing women to be served, the bathroom became unisex. But it was not until sixteen years later that a ladies room was installed.
* Hawaii, New York, Alaska, Washington: Hawaii, New York, Alaska and Washington repealed their abortion laws. Hawaii became the first state to legalize abortions on the request of the woman, 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.
* New York: On April 10, 1970, the New York Senate passed a law decriminalizing abortion in most cases. Republican Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller signed the bill into law the next day. The 1970 law did several things. First, it added a consent provision requiring a physician to obtain the woman's consent before performing an abortion.1 Laws of the State of New York Passed at the One Hundred and Ninety-Third Session of the Legislature, ch. 127, at 852 (1970),
available online
'. Second, it permitted physician-provided elective abortion services within the first 24-weeks of pregnancy or to preserve her life. Third, it permitted 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.
* South Carolina and Virginia: South Carolina and Virginia reformed 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.- Illinois Constitution, Article I, §18 (1970).
* Florida: Mary R. Grizzle introduced and passed the Married Women Property Rights Act, which became law in 1970, 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.
; 1971
* Barring women from practicing law was prohibited in the U.S. in 1971.
* 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. – Pennsylvania Constitution, Article I, § 28.
* '' United States v. Vuitch'', 402 U.S. 62 (1971) 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.
* ''Reed v. Reed'', , was 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.
* '' Phillips v. Martin Marietta Corp.'', , was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held 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.
* 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. – Virginia Constitution, Article I, §11 (1971).
* Alaska: Alaska repealed its statute that said inducing an abortion was a criminal offense.
; 1972
* Vermont: In 1972, the Vermont Supreme Court made a ruling that effectively ended abortion restrictions in the state.
* Connecticut: In ''Abele v. Markle'', 351 F. Supp. 224 (D. Conn. 1972) it was ruled that a Connecticut statute prohibiting abortions, except to save the life of the mother, was unconstitutional.
* New York: The New York State Court of Appeals ruled that Bernice Gera could be a baseball umpire.
* Washington: Equality of rights and responsibility under the law shall not be denied or abridged on account of sex. – Washington Constitution, ARTICLE XXXI, §1 (1972).
* 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. – Alaska Constitution, Article I, §3 (1972).
* '' 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. It states (in part) that:

* For the first nine years of the Equal Pay Act of 1963, the requirement of equal pay for equal work did not extend to persons employed in an executive, administrative or professional capacity, or as an outside salesperson. Therefore, the EPA exempted white-collar women from the protection of equal pay for equal work. The Education Amendments of 1972 amended the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to expand the coverage of the Equal Pay Act of 1963 to these employees, by excluding the EPA from the professional workers exemption of the FLSA.
* ''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.
* The common law offence of being a common scold was extant in New Jersey until struck down in 1972 by Circuit Judge McCann who found it had been subsumed in the provisions of the Disorderly Conduct Act of 1898, was bad for vagueness and offended the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution for sex discrimination.
* Under § 215 of the Social Security Act (42 USCS 415), old-age insurance benefits are computed on the basis of the wage earner's "average monthly wage" earned during their "benefit computation years," which are the "elapsed years" (reduced by five) during which their covered wages were highest. Under the pre-1972 version, the computation for old age insurance benefits was such that a woman obtained larger benefits than a man of the same age having the same earnings record. The 1972 amendment altered the formula for computing benefits so as to eliminate the previous distinction between men and women, but only as to men reaching the age of 62 in 1975 or later; it was not given retroactive application.
* 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.
* Maryland: In ''Stuart v. Board of Elections'', 266 Md. 440, 446, 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 held, " 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."
* Florida: Florida reformed its abortion law based on the American Law Institute Model Penal Code.
* Maryland: Equality of rights under the law shall not be abridged or denied because of sex. – Maryland Constitution, Declaration of Rights, Article 46 (1972).
* 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. – Texas Constitution, Article I, §3a (1972).
; 1973
* ''Roe v. Wade'', , was a landmark decision by the United States 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. Arguing that these state interests became stronger over the course of a pregnancy, the Court resolved this balancing test by tying state regulation of abortion to the third trimester of pregnancy.
* ''Doe v. Bolton'', 410 U.S. 179 (1973), was a decision of the United States Supreme Court overturning the abortion law of Georgia. The Supreme Court's decision was released on January 22, 1973, the same day as the decision in the better-known case of ''Roe v. Wade'', 410 U.S. 113 (1973). ''Doe v. Bolton'' challenged Georgia's much more liberal abortion statute.
* ''Frontiero v. Richardson'', , was a landmark United States Supreme Court case which decided that benefits given by the United States military to the family of service members cannot be given out differently because of sex.
* ''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.
* 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.USAID Public websit
USAID's Family Planning Guiding Principles and U.S. Legislative and Policy Requirements
Retrieved September 10, 2012
* The "Percy Amendment" of the Foreign Assistance Act required U.S. development assistance to integrate women into its programs, leading to USAID's creation of its Women in Development (WID) office in 1974.
* 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. – Colorado Constitution, Article II, §29 (1973).
* Montana: Individual dignity. 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. – Montana Constitution, Article II, §4 (1973).
* 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. – New Mexico Constitution, Article II, §18 (1973).
* California: In ''Rentzer v. Unemployment Ins. Appeals Bd.'' (1973), Gail Rentzer suffered from an ectopic pregnancy and was therefore 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. But after a lawsuit was filed, 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. This 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.
; 1974
* Kentucky: Kentucky adopted a law preventing public hospitals from performing abortion procedures except to protect the life of the mother.
* 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. – Connecticut Constitution, Article I, §20 (1974).
* ''Geduldig v. Aiello'', , was an equal protection case in the United States in which the Supreme Court ruled on whether unfavorable treatment to pregnant women could count as sex discrimination. It held that the denial of insurance benefits for work loss resulting from a normal pregnancy did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment. The California insurance program at issue did not exclude workers from eligibility based on sex but did exclude pregnancy from a list of compensable disabilities. The majority found that even though only women would be directly affected by the administrative decision, the classification of normal pregnancy as non-compensable was not a sex-based classification, and therefore the court would defer to the state so long as it could provide a rational basis for its categorization.
* The ''Equal Credit Opportunity Act'' (ECOA) is a United States law (codified at et seq.), enacted in 1974, that makes it unlawful for any creditor to discriminate against any applicant, with respect to any aspect of a credit transaction, on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, or age (provided the applicant has the capacity to contract); to the fact that all or part of the applicant's income derives from a public assistance program; or to the fact that the applicant has in good faith exercised any right under the Consumer Credit Protection Act. The law applies to any person who, in the ordinary course of business, regularly participates in a credit decision, including banks, retailers, bankcard companies, finance companies, and credit unions.
:Failure to comply with the Equal Credit Opportunity Act's Regulation B can subject a financial institution to civil liability for actual and punitive damages in individual or class actions. Liability for punitive damages can be as much as $10,000 in individual actions and the lesser of $500,000 or 1% of the creditor's net worth in class actions.
* In ''Kahn v. Shevin

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