1968 The first national women's liberation conference is held in Chicago

1968 The National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) is founded.

1968 EEOC rules that unless employers can show a bona fide occupational qualification exists, sex-segregated help wanted newspaper ads are illegal.

1968 Federally Employed Women is founded to end gender-based discrimination in civil service jobs. Within two decades, FEW has 200 chapters nationwide.

1968 The Voice of the Women's Liberation Movement appears in Chicago, edited by Jo Freeman and others. By 1971, over 100 women's movement newsletters and newspapers are being published across the country.

1968 National Welfare Rights organization if formed by activists such as Johnnie Tillmon and Etta Horm. They have 22,000 members by 1969, but are unable to survive as an organization past 1975.

1968 Shirley Chisholm (D-NY) is first Black woman elected to the U.S. Congress.

1969 Chicago women set up "Jane," an abortion referral service. During four years of existence, it provides more than 11,000 women with safe and affordable abortions.

1969 The Boston Women's Health Book Collective publishes the self-help manual Our Bodies, Ourselves: A Book by and for Women, incorporating medical information with personal experiences. Nearly 4 million copies sold as of 1997.

1969 California adopts the nation's first "no fault" divorce law, allowing couples to divorce by mutual consent. Other states follow rapidly.

1969 In Bowe v. Colgate-Palmolive, the Supreme Court rules that women meeting the physical requirements can work in many jobs that had been for men only.

1970 Betty Friedan organizes first Women's Equality Day, August 26, to mark the 50th anniversary of women's right to vote.

1970 North American Indian Women's Association is founded.

1970 Sexual Politics, by Kate Millett, is published

1970 The Comision Feminil Mexicana Nacion is organized to promote Latina rights. Founders include Graciella Olivares, Gracia Molina Pick, Francisco Flores, and Yolanda Nava.

1970 The North American Indian Women's Association is founded.

1970 San Diego State College in California establishes the first official, integrated women's studies program.

1970 Women wages fall to 59 cents for every dollar earned by men. Although nonwhite women earn even less, the gap is closing between white women and women of color.

1970 The Equal Rights Amendment is reintroduced into Congress.

1970 Lutheran Church in America and the American Lutheran Church agree to ordain women; the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod does not. Barbara Andrews becomes first woman ordained.

1971 The first battered women's shelter opens in the U.S., in Urbana, Illinois, founded by Cheryl Frank and Jacqueline Flenner. By 1979, more than 250 shelters are operating.

1971 New York Radical Feminists holds a series of speakouts and a conference on rape and women's treatment by the criminal justice system. Susan Brownmiller's book, Against Our Will, is one result. Another: the establishment of rape crisis centers across the country.

1971 For the first time in its 130 years, attorney Ruth Bader Ginsburg successfully uses the Fourteenth Amendment to overturn a sex-biased law in the Supreme Court case Reed v. Reed.

1971 Ms. magazine first appears as an insert in New York magazine. Gloria Steinem, Ms. co-founder and editor, becomes a leading journalist and media personality for the Second Wave.

1971 The non-partisan National Women's Political Caucus is founded to encourage women to run for public office.

1972 The first emergency rape crisis hotline opens in Washington, D.C. By 1976 400 independent rape crisis centers operate nationwide offering counseling, self-defense classes, and support groups.

1972 Title IX of the Education Amendments requires that "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance."

1972 In Eisenstadt v. Baird the Supreme Court rules that the right to privacy encompasses an unmarried person's right to use contraceptives.

1972 Congress extends the Equal Pay Act to include executives, administrative and professional personnel.

1972 Congress passes the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, giving the EEOC power to take legal action to enforce its rulings.

1972 After languishing since 1923, the ERA is passed by Congress on March 22 and sent to the states for ratification. Hawaii approves it within the hour. By the end of the week, so have Delaware, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Idaho and Iowa.

1972 Ms. magazine begins regular publication, reaching a circulation of 350,000 within a year.

1972 Barbara Jordan (D-TX) becomes first Black woman elected to Congress from a Southern state.

1972 Sally Priesand becomes first U.S. woman ordained as a rabbi in Reform Judaism.

1973 Billie Jean King scores an enormous victory for female athletes when she beats Bobby Riggs in "The Battle of the Sexes," a televised tennis tournament watched by nearly 48,000,000 people.

1973 The National Black Feminist Organization is established.

1973 9 to 5: National Association of Working Women, is founded by Karen Nussbaum in Boston. Nussbaum later becomes Director of the Women's Bureau, U.S. Department of Labor.

1973 The Civil Service Commission eliminates height and weight requirements that have discriminated against women applying for police, park service, and fire fighting jobs.

1973 The Office of Federal Contract Compliance issues guidelines prohibiting sex discrimination in employment by any federal contractor and requiring affirmative action to correct existing imbalances.

1973 The U.S. military is integrated when the women-only branches are eliminated.

1973 In a suit brought by NOW, Pittsburgh Press v Pittsburgh Commission on Human Relations, the Supreme Court affirms the EEOC ruling against sex-segregated help wanted ads in newspapers. This opens the way for women to apply for jobs previously limited to men and offering better pay and advancement opportunities.

1973 In Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court establishes a woman's right to abortion, effectively canceling the anti-abortion laws of 46 states.

1974 Alliance of Displaced Homemakers is founded by Tish Sommers and Laurie Shields to address issues of divorced and widowed homemakers seeking employment.

1974 Little League agrees to include girls "in deference to a change in social climate," but creates a softball branch specifically for girls to draw them from baseball.

1974 MANA, the Mexican-American Women's National Association, organizes as feminist activist organization. By 1990, MANA chapters operate 16 states with members in 36.

1974 Hundreds of colleges are offering women's studies courses; there are over 80 full programs in place. Additionally, 230 women's centers on college campuses provide support services for women students.

1974 The Women's Educational Equity Act, drafted by Arlene Horowitz and introduced by Rep. Patsy Mink (D-HI), funds the development of nonsexist teaching materials and model programs that encourage full educational opportunities for girls and women.

1974 Coalition for Labor Union Women founded

1974 The Coalition for Labor Union Women is founded, uniting blue-collar women across occupational lines.

1974 Cleveland Board of Education v. LaFleur determines it is illegal to force pregnant women to take maternity leave on the assumption they are incapable of working in their physical condition.

1974 The Equal Credit Opportunity Act forbids sex discrimination in all consumer credit practices; extended to commercial credit in 1988.

1974 Ella Grasso becomes the first woman to win election as governor in her own right, in Connecticut.

1974 The number of women in public office begins to rise. Women now hold 8% of state legislative seats and 16 seats in Congress. By 1986: 14.8% of legislative seats, and 24 seats in Congress. In 1997: 21% of legislative seats, 62 seats in Congress.

1974 Through a series of Mujeres Pro-Raza Unida conferences, Texas Chicanas have organized a statewide network to promote Chicana awareness, political campaign strategies and organizing techniques.