1975 The first women's bank opens, in New York City.

1975 Taylor v. Louisiana denied states the right to exclude women from juries.

1976 Dr. Benjamin Spock eliminates sex-bias in his revised Baby and Child Care.

1976 Organization of Pan Asian American Women is founded to impact public policy.

1976 The United Nations "Decade for Women" begins.

1976 Title IX goes into effect (see 1972 entry). Opening the way for women's increased participation in athletics programs and professional schools, enrollments leap in both categories. Title IX withstands repeated court challenges over time (see 1997 entry).

1976 Alliance for Displaced Homemakers founded by Tish Sommers and Laurie Shields, moving the issues of divorced and widowed homemakers seeking employment into the public discussion.

1976 U.S. military academies open admissions to women.

1976 Working Women: The National Association for Office Workers is formed. In four years it has over 10,000 members.

1976 In a groundbreaking law, marital rape becomes a crime in Nebraska.

1976 Women Against Violence Against Women, stages the first major demonstration against pornography, in Los Angeles.

1976 A New York Times survey shows that women's enrollment in theological seminaries has risen from 3% to 35% of all students within the previous decade.

1976 The Episcopal Church votes to allow the ordination of women as bishops and priests, and recognizes the earlier "irregular" ordination of Jacqueline Means and ten other women.

1977 The First National Women's Conference is held in Houston, Texas, chaired by Bella Abzug. 130,000 women attended preparatory meetings held in every state to draft recommendations for a national Plan of Action and to elect 2,000 delegates to the conference - the most diverse group ever elected in the U.S. The delegates publish a 25-point Plan of Action.

1977 The National Women's Studies Association is formed to promote the field's development. By 1978 there are over 15,000 courses and more than 275 programs; by 1992 there are 670 programs.

1977 Congress passes the Hyde Amendment, eliminating federal funding for poor women's abortions. By 1995, only thirteen states still provide public funding for abortions.

1977 Between 1969 and 1977, the Supreme Court issues full opinions on 21 women's rights cases.

1977 Michelle Barnes wins the first sexual harassment suit, before the US. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

1977 The last state (Indiana) ratifies the ERA, but three more are needed.

1978 100,000 march in support of the Equal Rights Amendment in Washington, D.C.

1978 National Coalition Against Domestic Violence forms bringing shelters and other groups together to publicize the issue.

1978 The Older Women's League is founded to address age-and-gender discrimination issues including health insurance and retirement benefits

1978 For the first time in history, more women than men enter college.

1978 The Pregnancy Discrimination Act amends the 1964 Civil Rights Act to ban employment discrimination against pregnant women.

1978 OFCC establishes quotas for federally funded construction projects: 6.9% women on work sites and 20-25% women in apprenticeship programs. Still, by 1983 women were only 2% of the construction labor force.

1978 Publicity about the Oregon v. Rideout decision leads many other states to also allow prosecution for marital and cohabitation rape.

1978 The first national feminist conference on pornography is held in San Francisco, with a large "Take Back the Night" march. Soon thousands of women across the country stage similar marches.

1979 Owanah Anderson founds and directs the Ohoyo Resource Center to advance the status of American Indian/Alaska Native women.

1979 The National Association for Black Women Entrepreneurs is formed by Marilyn French-Hubbard to offer advice, training, and networking for black businesswomen.

1979 Rape crisis centers in 20 states join forces in the National Coalition Against Sexual Assault.

1979 Judy Chicago's art exhibit honoring notable women in history, "The Dinner Party," opens in San Francisco with record-setting attendance and vitriolic reviews.

1980 Jewell Jackson-McCabe founds the National Coalition of 100 Black Women.

1980 New EEOC guidelines list sexual harassment as a form of prohibited sexual discrimination.

1980 The "gender gap" first shows up at the election polls as women report different political priorities than men.

1980 The Reverend Marjorie S. Matthew is elected as a bishop of the United Methodist Church, becoming the nation's first woman to sit on the governing body of a major religious denomination.

1981 At the request of women's organizations, President Carter proclaims the first "National Women's History Week," incorporating March 8, International Women's Day.

1981 The National Black Women's Health Project founded to establish community-based self-help groups. (Mary would delete this)

1981 In San Jose, California, a strike of city workers wins salaries based on comparable worth for nearly 1500 women, a national first.

1981 Kirchberg v. Feenstra overturns state laws designating a husband "head and master," having unilateral control of property owned jointly with his wife.

1981 Sandra Day O'Connor is the first woman ever appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1993, she is joined by Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

1981 Sharon Parker and Veronica Collazo found the National Institute for Women of Color. First project: replacing phrase "minority women" with "women of color" in common usage.

1982 Ratification efforts for an Equal Rights Amendment fail despite a solid majority of the public -63%- supporting it. It is promptly reintroduced into Congress.

1982 Over 900 women hold positions as state legislators, compared with 344 a decade earlier.

1984 Sex discrimination in the admission policies of organizations such as the Jaycees is forbidden by the Supreme Court in Roberts v. United States Jaycees, opening many previously all-male organizations to women.

1984 EMILY's List (Early Money is Like Yeast: It Makes the Dough Rise) is founded to raise funds for feminist candidates.

1984 Geraldine Ferraro is the first woman vice-presidential candidate of a major political party (Democratic Party).

1984 The non-partisan National Political Congress of Black Women is founded by Shirley Chisholm to address women's rights issues and encourage participation in the electoral process at every level.

1985 Tracey Thurman of Connecticut is first woman to win a civil suit as a battered wife.

1985 Wilma Mankiller becomes first woman installed as principal chief of a major Native American tribe, the Cherokee in Oklahoma.

1986 The Supreme Court declares sexual harassment is a form of illegal job discrimination.

1986 The New York Times is the last among major dailies to allow use of "Ms." as a title.

1986 Amy Eilberg is the first women ordained as a rabbi by the Conservative Rabbinical Assembly.

1986 About 25% of scientists are now women, but they are still less likely than men to be full professors or on a tenure track in teaching. Only 3.5% of the National Academy of Sciences members are women (51 members); since the academy's 1863 founding, only 60 women have been elected.

1987 Responding to the National Women's History Project, the U.S. Congress declares March to be National Women's History Month.

1987 The Feminist Majority Foundation is founded by Ellie Smeal to help women candidates win public offices.

1988 Rev. Barbara Harris, an African-American, becomes the first female bishop of the Episcopal Church.

1989 300,000 marchers demonstrate for women's reproductive rights in Washington, D.C.

1989 In Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, the Supreme Court affirms the right of states to deny public funding for abortions and to prohibit public hospitals from performing abortions.

1990s Women in their twenties, calling themselves "the third wave," form myriad on- and off-campus organizations to tackle their generation's particular concerns and vulnerabilities.

1990 LaDonna Harris, Native American activist, estimates that women make up one-quarter of most tribal councils, and fill half the seats on many.

1990 The number of Black women in elective office has increased from 131 in 1970 to 1,950 in 1990.

1991 In Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women, Susan Faludi documents the attacks on women's progress during the last decade, "set off not by women's achievement of full equality but by the increased possibility that they might win it. "

1992 Women are now paid 71 cents for every dollar paid to men. The range is from 64 cents for working-class women to 77cents for professional women with doctorates. Black women earned 65 cents, Latinas 54 cents.

1992 Women owned business employ more workers in the United States than the Fortune 500 companies do worldwide.

1992 "The Year of the Woman." A record number of women run for public office, and win. Twenty-four are newly-elected to the House of Representatives (total: and six to the Senate. They include: the first Mexican-American woman and first Puerto Rican women in the House, Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) and Nydia Velazquez (D-NY); the first black woman Senator, Carole Moseley Braun, D-IL; and both Senators for California, Barbara Boxer, Diane Feinstein, who are both Democrats.

1992 Women win all five of the gold medals won by Americans during the Winter Olympics.

1993 Take Our Daughters to Work Day debuts, designed to build girls self-esteem and open their eyes to a variety of career possibilities for women.

1993 The Family Medical Leave Act finally goes into effect. Vetoed by President Bush, it is the first bill signed by President Clinton.

1993 Fifty states have revised their laws so that, depending on the degree of additional violence used, husbands can be prosecuted for sexually assaulting their wives.

1993 With the increased number of women members, the 103rd Congress passes into law thirty bills on women's issues during its first year, 33 during its second. The previous record for any year: five.

1993 Women hold a record number of positions in state as well as federal government. Are 20.4% of state legislators; 3 governors, 11 lieutenant governors, 8 attorneys general, 13 secretaries of state, 19 state treasurers, 6 women in the Senate, 48 in the House of Representatives.

1994 Every couple applying for a marriage license in California is given information about domestic violence.

1994 Congress adopts the Gender Equity in Education Act to train teachers, promote math and science learning by girls, counsel pregnant teens, and prevent sexual harassment.

1994 The Violence Against Women Act funds services for victims of rape and domestic violence, allows women to seek civil rights remedies for gender-related crimes, provides training to increase police and court officials' sensitivity and a national 24-hour hotline for battered women.

1996 U.S. women's spectacular success in the Summer Olympics (19 gold medals, 10 silver, 9 bronze) is the result of large numbers of girls and women active in sports since the passage of Title IX.

1996 United States v. Virginia affirms that the male-only admissions policy of the state-supported Virginia Military Institute violates the Fourteenth Amendment.

1996 Total number of female bishops, priests, ministers, and rabbis: Baptist: 2,313 ministers; Episcopal: 6 bishops, 1,452 priests; Evangelical Lutheran: 1,838 pastors; Judaic, Reform: 259 rabbis; Judaic, conservative: 72 rabbis; Judaic, Orthodox: 0 rabbis; Latter-day Saints: 0 priests; Methodists: 10 bishops, 4,995 ministers; Presbyterian: 3,026 ministers; Roman Catholic: 0 priests; Seventy-day Adventist: 0 priests; Unitarian Universalist Association: 4,443 ministers; United Church of Christ (Congregationalist): 2,080 ministers.