1838
Kentucky gives widows with school-aged children the right to vote in school elections.

1840
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, two members of the American delegation to the World Anti-Slavery Convention held in London, England, are denied the opportunity to participate because of their gender; being excluded from the meetings, they vow to hold a separate conference to address the unequal rights of women.

1848
Stanton and Mott hold the first conference on women’s rights in Stanton’s hometown of Seneca Falls, New York; the convention produces a document, the Declaration of Sentiments, which serves as the foundation for the women’s rights movement for decades; the most controversial element is a call for women’s suffrage.

1861
Kansas grants women the right to vote in school board elections. 1868 The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is adopted; this amendment introduces the word male into the Constitution for the...