August in Women's History

Celebrate Women’s Equality Day

August Highlights in US Women's History

August 6, 1965 - Voting Rights Act outlaws the discriminatory literacy tests that had been used to prevent African Americans from voting. Suffrage is finally fully extended to African American women
August 8, 1969 - Executive order 11478 issued by President Nixon requires each federal department and agency to establish and maintain an affirmative action program of equal employment opportunity for civilian employees and applicants
August 9, 1995 - Roberta Cooper Ramo becomes the first woman to hold the office of president of the American Bar Association
August 10, 1993 - Ruth Bader Ginsburg is sworn in as the second woman and 107th Justice to serve on the US Supreme Court
August 12, 1972 - Wendy Rue founds the National Association for Female Executives (NAFE), the largest businesswomen's organization in the US
August 14, 1986 - Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper retires from active duty in the US Navy. A pioneering computer scientist and inventor of the computer language COBOL, she was the oldest officer still on active duty at the time of her retirement
August 23, 1902 - Fanny Farmer opens the "School of Cookery" in Boston, MA
August 26, 1920 - The 19th Amendment of the US Constitution is ratified granting women the right to vote
August 26, 1970 - Betty Friedan leads a nationwide protest called the Women's Strike for Equality in New York City on the fiftieth anniversary of women's suffrage
August 26, 1971 - The first "Women's Equality Day," instituted by Bella Abzug, is established by Presidential Proclamation and reaffirmed annually
August 28, 1963 - More than 250,000 gather for a march on Washington, DC, and listen to Martin Luther King Jr's famous "I Have a Dream" speech
August 30, 1984 - Judith A. Resnick is the second US woman in space, traveling on the maiden flight of the space shuttle Discovery

August Birthdays

August 1, 1818 (1889) - Maria Mitchell, astronomer and professor, first woman elected to both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society
August 3, 1905 (1995) - Maggie Kuhn, senior rights activist, founded the Gray Panthers
August 6, 1886 (1916) - Inez Milholland Boissevain, a lawyer and suffrage leader. Dramatically gowned in white and riding a huge white horse, she lead a suffrage parade in Washington, DC, during Woodrow Wilson's inauguration
August 7, 1890 (1964) - Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, labor organizer, helped found the ACLU in 1920
August 12, 1859 (1929) - Katharine Lee Bates, poet, wrote "America the Beautiful"
August 13, 1818 (1893) - Lucy Stone, suffragist and supporter of rights for women and African Americans, boldly kept her own name when she married
August 14, 1952 - Debbie Meyer, swimming champion, was the first female triple Olympic gold medalist in individual races
August 19, 1814 (1904) - Mary Ellen Pleasant, entrepreneur, called "Mother of Civil Rights in California," successfully sued a trolley line when refused service because of her color
August 23, 1944 - Dr. Antonia C. Novello was the first woman and first Latina Surgeon General (1990-1993) of the US
August 25, 1927 (2003) - Althea Gibson, tennis and golf champion, was the first African American to compete and win the US Open and Wimbledon, and the first African American member of the Ladies Pro Golf Association
August 28, 1774 (1821) - Elizabeth Seton was the first American-born Roman Catholic Saint, canonized 1975
August 30, 1876 (1952) - Lillie Rosa Minoka-Hill, a member of the Mohawk nation, was one of the first Native American physicians in the U.S.