Sex Discrimination Act comes into effect

Women activists met to set a shared agenda for liberation, including equal pay, education and childcare. The conference helped build a decentralized movement while debate continued over race,...

Parliament repealed a discriminatory criminal-law provision that had set a higher age of consent for same-sex relations between men than for heterosexual relations. COC and other advocates had...

Title IX prohibited sex discrimination in federally funded education. Student groups, educators and women’s organizations used it to challenge institutional barriers, while unequal enforcement...

Section 504 prohibited disability discrimination in federally funded programs. Disabled activists later forced the government to issue regulations, demonstrating that rights require organized...

The APA’s board voted to remove homosexuality as a mental disorder after years of organizing by gay and lesbian activists and internal debate. Medical institutions became a site of struggle over who...

The act extended protection to employment, housing and education, recognized indirect discrimination and established the Commission for Racial Equality. Activists and community groups had pressed...

Disabled activists occupied a federal building to demand enforceable regulations for Section 504. Cross-movement support helped sustain the protest, making disabled people’s leadership visible in...

Thousands of delegates debated a National Plan of Action on equality, childcare, employment and reproductive rights. It was a rare federally supported gathering shaped by grassroots women and...

The Convention created international obligations to eliminate discrimination against women. Feminist movements used it as an accountability tool while challenging exclusions in both international...

The Charter entrenched equality rights, including protections related to race, sex, disability and other grounds. Indigenous peoples and equality-seeking groups continued to contest the gap between...