Women’s Social and Political Union founded

Aletta Jacobs became the first woman admitted as a student to a Dutch university. Her admission followed a direct request to the education minister and opened a breach in institutional exclusion...

The law expanded married women’s legal control over earnings and property after decades of campaigning. Reform altered a basic institution of family law without ending unequal pay or women’s...

Delegates convened in Washington, DC, and established an international organization for women’s associations. The council built durable networks while its early leadership largely reflected white...

Wilhelmina Drucker and other campaigners founded an independent association after existing suffrage clubs failed to support women’s voting rights. The organization built a national network through...

Black women’s clubs joined in a national federation to challenge racism, sexism and attacks on their communities. Its motto, “Lifting as we climb,” expressed institution-building and collective...

Black intellectuals and activists adopted a program opposing segregation and demanding full civil and political equality. The movement helped establish the organizational and ideological groundwork...

The Women’s Social and Political Union organized a major rally attended by tens of thousands. Public spectacle and collective action made suffrage a mass political question and tested the limits of...

The NAACP created a national institution for legal advocacy, research and public campaigning against racial discrimination. Its strategy combined litigation, journalism and grassroots pressure.

Socialist women’s organizations coordinated public demonstrations in several European cities. The day connected suffrage demands to labor conditions and international solidarity rather than treating...

Alice Paul and Lucy Burns formed a new organization that used marches, lobbying and civil disobedience to demand a federal suffrage amendment. Its strategies expanded movement pressure while revealing...