Many states quickly approved the 19th Amendment, and by the end of March 1920, only one additional state was needed for ratification. Mississippi could have been that state, but it rejected the amendment on March 29. Political cartoonist Clifford Berryman portrays the Mississippi rejection as an April Fool’s joke on supporters for woman suffrage.  Within five months, however, the 19th Amendment would be added to the Constitution and Mississippi eventually ratified it on March 22, 1984. April First, Mississippi Suffrage Berryman cartoon, April 1, 1920. National Archives, Records of the U.S. Senate

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 became a milestone for gender equality when the word “sex” was inserted into the legislation, which initially had named race, color, religion and national origin. The inclusion of women as a group protected against discrimination was an important tool in advancing social and economic progress for women. Title VII of the act deals with employment, and U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission characterized the act as “the most comprehensive and important of all Federal and state laws prohibiting employment discrimination.” Mark-up copy of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, June 20, 1963. National Archives, Records of the U.S. House of Representatives

More than 130,000 people—including former First Ladies Lady Bird Johnson and Betty Ford, First Lady Rosalynn Carter, Coretta Scott King, and Susan B. Anthony’s niece—attended the First National Women's Conference in Houston, Texas, in 1977. The torch was passed to a new wave of women reformers at the ambitious conference. The outcome was a National Plan of Action for women’s rights, inclusive of women of color, and which is still being debated today. Torch relay from Seneca Falls, New York to Houston, Texas, 1977.  National Archives, Records of Temporary Committees, Commissions, and Boards

In 1938, she became the first black woman to earn a commercial pilot’s license. Brown and her husband opened a flight school, the National Airmen’s Association of America, dedicated to training black men to become pilots. When World War II began, she worked to integrate aviation schools and was the first woman to be commissioned a lieutenant in the Civil Air Patrol, the civilian auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force. Credited with training more than 200 men and women, her school supplied trainees to the Tuskegee Airman program. “Willa Beatrice Brown serves her country by training pilots for the U.S. Army Air Forces,” ca. 1942. National Archives, Records of the Office of War Information

Ellen Ochoa is a scientist, inventor, pilot, classical flutist, and the first Latina astronaut in the world to go to space. Her work in optics led to her co-inventing three patents, helping computers to “see” or process images.  Accepted into the NASA Training Program in 1990, she completed training in 1991. Chosen for four missions totaling almost 1000 hours in space, Ochoa’s final flight was to the International Space Station in 2002. In 2013, after serving as deputy director, she was the second woman and first Latina appointed Director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Mission Specialist Ellen Ochoa playing a flute, 1993. National Archives, Records of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration