| 1874 | The Woman's Christian Temperance Union is founded, the largest grass-roots women's organization of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. |
| 1875 | Minor v. Happersett. The Supreme Court rules that the rights guaranteed to citizens under the Constitution do not necessarily include suffrage. |
| 1880 | The Woman's Christian Temperance Union endorses woman suffrage. |
| 1890 | The National American Woman Suffrage Association is founded with the merger of rival organizations, the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association. |
| 1896 | The National Association of Colored Women is founded. |
| 1908 | Muller v. Oregon. The Supreme Court upholds an Oregon law limiting working hours for women based on the idea that women's frailty requires protection under the law. |
| 1915 | Woman's Peace Party is founded; reorganized in 1919 as the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. |
| 1916 | National Woman's Party is founded by Alice Paul. |
| 1919 | The National Federation of Business and Professional Women is founded. |
| 1920 |
| February | The National League of Women Voters is created. |
| June | The Women's Bureau is created within the Department of Labor. |
| August | The Nineteenth Amendment granting women the right to vote is ratified. |
| 1921 | The Sheppard-Towner Act passes Congress, providing federal grants for six years to states establishing maternal and pediatric health-care clinics. |
| 1923 | The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is introduced in Congress. |
| 1927 | After a bitter fight, Congress extends the life of the Sheppard- Towner Act until June 30, 1929. |
| 1935 | National Council of Negro Women is founded by Mary McLeod Bethune. |
| 1938 | The Fair Labor Standards Act establishes the principle of equal pay, but it did not apply to women's work. |