Timeline


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 * 1864**: The nation's first female union, The Collar Laundry Union, was formed by Kate Mullaney, in Troy, New York. Shortly after it was formed Mullaney led a strike. Within two years after the strike was performed, the weekly wages of the women working in Troy’s 14 commercial laundries were raised from 3 or 4 dollars per week, to 14 dollars per week.


 * 1920**: The Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor is formed. It collects information regarding female workers and creates/keeps good working conditions.


 * 1961**: The President's Commission on the Status of Women is created by John F. Kennedy. It consists of specific recommendations for improvement in the workplace. Some of these include fair hiring prices, paid maternity leave, and reasonably priced child care.


 * 1963**: The Equal Pay Act makes it illegal to pay a woman less than what a man would be paid for the same job. It was signed into law by John F. Kennedy on June 10, 1973.


 * 1963:** __The Feminine Mystique__, by Betty Friedan, is published. This book introduced the public to women's dissatisfaction as homemakers, and their fulfillment from in the workforce.

An Excerpt: “To enforce the constitutional right to vote, to confer jurisdiction upon the district courts of the United States to provide injunctive relief against discrimination in public accommodations, to authorize the attorney General to institute suits to protect constitutional rights in public facilities and public education, to extend the Commission on Civil Rights, to prevent discrimination in federally assisted programs, to establish a Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity, and for other purposes.”
 * 1964**: Civil Rights Act, Title VII becomes law. This act banned discrimination in the workplace based on color or gender.


 * 1964:** The EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) is created. It was established as part of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. It is a United States federal agency, and its mission is to end employment discrimination all throughout the country. By Executive Order 10925, it became law after being signed by John F. Kennedy. Maurice Davis served as the first chair from 1964 to 1965 (the chair is assigned by the president and is the chief executive officer).


 * 1966**: The National Organization for Women is founded. It's purpose is to end discrimination based on sex (particularly in the workplace) through public demonstrations, legislative lobbying, etc.


 * 1968**: The EEOC rules that sex-segregated help-wanted advertisements are illegal. This results in women being able to apply for higher paying jobs. Until the early 1960’s, job listings were being published in newspapers for men and women. But the jobs were categorized according to sex, with higher level of jobs listed under males. In some cases there were ads that had identical jobs for women and male, but there were separate pay scales. Separate meant unequal. Through 1950 to 1960, women with full time jobs earned on average about 59 to 64 cents for every dollar a male received in the same job.


 * 1970**: Schultz v. Wheaton Glass Co.: A United States Court of Appeals decides that in order to fit the Equal Pay Act, men and women's jobs must be "substantially equal" but not "identical. As an example, it is illegal for an employer to change a woman's job title so that she can be paid less than a man.


 * 1972**: Equal Rights Amendment is passed by Congress, but fails to be ratified by the individual states by its dead line. One section of it referred to discrimination of women. Today, women have no constitutional guarantee for equal rights under the law.


 * 1974**: Corning Glass Works v. Brennan: The United States Supreme Court rules that paying women less than men just because those are the wages that they had traditionally received under the "going market rate" is unacceptable. For example, an employer cannot excuse the occurrence of a wage differential "simply because men would not work at the low rates paid for women".


 * 1978**: The Pregnancy Discrimination Act is created. It states that a woman cannot be fired, denied a job, or denied a promotion because she is or may become pregnant. Nor can she be forced to take a pregnancy leave if she is willing and able to work.


 * 1993:** The Family Medical Leave Act is passed. This act states that both female and male workers are granted a job-guaranteed leave for medical reasons such as an ill family member or a newborn child.


 * Citations:** [|Infoplease.com]