Ohio University Women's Time Line, 1804-2007
1804 -- First Ohio University Trustees named
1809 -- First class -- 3 males -- enters Ohio University
1833 -- Oberlin College becomes first coeducational college in US
1848 -- Seneca Falls Convention for women's rights (New York)
1850 -- Women's rights convention in Salem, Ohio
1851 -- Sojourner Truth gives her famous speech at Akron women's rights convention
1863 -- Emancipation Proclamation
1868 -- Margaret Boyd becomes OU's 1st female student
1872 -- Ohioan Victoria Woodhull becomes the 1st woman candidate for US President
1873 -- Women's Temperance Crusade, Hillsboro, Ohio
1875 -- There are 14 females enrolled at OU
1878 -- Susan B. Anthony speaks in Athens
1883 -- Cynthia Weld becomes OU's first female professor
1889 -- Pi Beta Phi
1896 -- Ohio University branch of YWCA formed
1899 -- 90 women and 159 men enrolled at OU
1907 -- Boyd Hall (Old) is built -- OU's first building named for a woman
1911 -- US adopts International Women's Day -- March 8
1913 -- Irma Voigt arrives in Athens on 31st birthday to begin as Dean of Women
1914 -- Margaret Sanger introduces the term "birth control"
1916 -- Martha Jane Hunley (Blackburn) becomes OU's first Black female graduate
1919 -- 18th Amendment -- Prohibition
1920 -- 19th Amendment -- Women Suffrage
1920 -- Women's Bureau formed in the US Department of Labor
1921 -- Women's Athletic Association (WAA) founded
1925 -- Anne Keating becomes first female director of OU Libraries
1927 -- Athens Branch of the American Association of University Women is formed by 14 charter members including Voigt
1932 -- Eleanor Hazeltine becomes editor of Green Goat
1933 -- Prohibition repealed
1933 -- Frances Perkins named US Secretary of Labor, first woman in the Cabinet
1941 -- Mary Elizabeth Lasher becomes the first female editor of The Post
1944 -- WAA becomes Women's Recreation Association (WRA)
1944 -- Dorothy Fisher is OU's first female commencement speaker
1949 -- Irma Voigt retires
1950 -- Evelyn Coulter Luchs ('27) becomes first woman named to the OU Board of Trustees
1950 -- Leona Wise Felsted becomes Dean of Women
1951 -- Janice Battin Bixler becomes Dean of Women
1953 -- Margaret Deppen becomes Dean of Women
1953 -- Janice Battin Bixler becomes first director of (old) Baker Center
1954 -- Eleanor Roosevelt visits Athens
1956 -- Voigt Hall is named for Irma Voigt
1960 -- Birth control pill is approved
1961 -- President John F. Kennedy creates the President's Commission on the Status of Women-to be chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt
1962 -- OU positions of Dean of Women and Dean of Men are dissolved
1963 -- Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique is published
1963 -- Equal Pay Act
1964 -- Civil Rights Act
1967 -- Women are eliminated from the OU Marching Band
1968 -- $8 million Convocation Center is built with no facilities for female athletes
1969 -- Dozens of OU women stay out past curfew in protest of women's hours
1969 -- Alicia Woodson is first Black woman elected student body president
1969 -- OU's African American Studies Dept. is established
1970 -- Our Bodies, Ourselves is published
1971 -- Shirley Wimmer becomes OU's first female University Professor
1971 -- Three women coaches of OU's women's teams protest their $1,000 budget
1971 -- Athens mothers stage a "baby-in" to call attention to the need for childcare
1972 -- OU's first daycare center opens with Julia Nehls ('50) as director
1972 -- Ms. Magazine begins publication
1972 -- End of OU women's curfews
1972 -- Report on the Status of Women at Ohio University by Beverly J. Price ("Price Report") is issued
1972 -- Higher Education Amendments including Title IX
1972 -- Some OU women march through the men's locker room -- the only route to OU's only sauna
1973 -- First OU Women's Center opens in McGuffey Hall
1973 -- There are eight women's varsity sports at OU
1973 -- OU women's sauna opens
1973 -- All-male US Supreme Court makes Roe v. Wade decision
1973 -- First athletic scholarships awarded to OU women
1974 -- Ohio passes Equal Rights Amendment
1974 -- Women's Educational Equity Act is passed by Congress
1975 -- Women are back in the OU Marching Band
1975 -- Athens Area National Organization for Women (NOW) founded at UCM
1975 -- Ohio native Gloria Steinem speaks in Athens for first time
1975 -- OU Women's Center moves to (old) Baker Center
1976 -- OU Women's Center closes
1976 -- Dr. Jimmy Tong begins his Women in Science & Engineering (WISE) program to encourage young women in science
1976 -- National Women's Studies Association founded
1977 -- My Sister's Place opens in Athens
1977 -- OU Women's Advisory Committee demonstrates outside Cutler Hall against unequal opportunities for women
1977 -- Joy Huntley, Patricia Richard, and Barbara Daniel make a formal proposal for a Women's Studies Program at OU
1978 -- Prof. Francine Childs organizes a "Community Pray-In" over concerns about racial injustices in Athens
1978 -- Polly Gagliano and 5 other women in School of Music file a complaint with the EEOC about inequities, and eventually receive salary adjustments
1978 -- There are 275+ Women's Studies programs in the US
1978 -- There are 10 women's varsity sports at OU
1979 -- Athens' first Take Back the Night March
1979 -- Wendy Weeden Devine ('74) is first female inducted into OU Athletic Hall of Fame
1979 -- Athens Women's Collective protests at OU Founder's Day
1979 -- Hilda Richards becomes OU's first female academic dean
1979 -- Women's Studies Program begins at OU in a tiny office in Wilson Hall, budget of $8,500, and Nancy Bain as director
1979 -- OU begins remodeling Convo to accommodate female athletes
1981 -- President Reagan proclaims National Women's History Week, to include International Women's Day on March 8
1981 -- OU women begin to compete in the MAC
1981 -- US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor becomes the first woman on the Court
1982 -- Equal Rights Amendment fails; Athens women stage a peaceful demonstration at the Athens County Courthouse
1983 -- Women's Studies Program moves to Scott Quad
1985 -- OU's Graduate Women's Studies Certificate Program is approved
1986 -- Gladys Bailin becomes OU's first female Distinguished Professor
1987 -- Women's History Week is expanded; March is Women's History Month
1988 -- Sara Hendricker becomes Athens' first female mayor
1990 -- OU publishes the Report on the Status of Women Survey, compiled at OU women's request 15 years after the "Price Report"
1992 -- There are 670+ Women's Studies programs in the US
1993 -- Ruth Bader Ginsburg becomes the second woman on the US Supreme Court
1993 -- Family and Medical Leave Act
1994 -- University and community women lobby OU to honor Susan B. Anthony's 1878 visit to Athens by erecting a plaque on Memorial Auditorium
1995 -- Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act (EADA) requires some schools to report sports participation, funding, etc. by sex
1995 -- Plaque commemorating Susan B. Anthony's visit is installed on Memorial Auditorium in time for the 75th anniversary of the 19th Amendment
1996 -- Sharon Brehm becomes OU's first female provost
1998 -- There are eleven women's varsity sports at OU
1999 -- OU remodels Memorial Auditorium and renames it to honor OU's first African American graduates--Templeton and Blackburn
2005 -- OU offers Women's Studies as a major
2006 -- Janet Carleton begins AWE Listserv for Athens-area women
2006 -- Beatrice Selotlegeng named interim director of new OU Women's Center
2006 -- Provost Kathy Krendl establishes OU Commission for Women
2007 -- Women's Center opens in the new Baker University Center
2007 -- Susanne Dietzel named director of Women's Center
Suggestions/corrections? Send them to Judy Daso at daso -at- ohio.edu
Download the illustrated PDF version of the Ohio University Women's Time Line, 1804-2007 (1.4 MB PDF)
Download the text PDF version of the Time Line (518k PDF)
last updated: 05/20/2008 || URL: <http://www.herstorycelebration.org/ou_timeline.html>
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