Women's Rights

In the dress (now in the Smithsonian collections), on September 20, 1973, Billie Jean King crushed Bobby Riggs with her serve and volley game, winning the match 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.

How Billie Jean King Picked Her Outfit for the Battle of the Sexes Match

King beat self-proclaimed male chauvinist Bobby Riggs and her victory still stands as an accomplishment for feminism

A man named Georgios Papanicolaou invented the Pap smear, but Elizabeth Stern helped figure out how to interpret it.

Why The Pap Test Could Also Be Called the Stern Test

Elizabeth Stern played a vital role in cervical cancer testing and treatment

Manasi Kulkarni on her farm in Nandgaon, Maharashtra, India

The Intrepid Teachers Bringing Internet Access To Women In Rural India

The gender disparity among internet users in the country's small villages is staggering. A program called Internet Saathi aims to help

An unknown woman spinning, circa 1900.

‘Spinster’ and ‘Bachelor’ Were, Until 2005, Official Terms for Single People

Being single is hard enough without these pejoratives.

This is what a touring car looked like in 1915.

Before She Was an Etiquette Authority, Emily Post Was a Road Warrior

Post didn't drive herself, but she laid claim to her own authority on the road in other ways

Katherine "Kate" Murray Millett in Milan, Italy, in 1975.

Kate Millett, Pioneering Feminist Author, Has Died at 82

Her book 'Sexual Politics' was a defining text of second-wave feminism

Emma Nutt was just the leading edge of the wave.

Long Before Siri, Emma Nutt's Voice Was on the Other End of the Line

She was the first female telephone operator. Before her, telephone operators were teenaged boys. That didn't go so well

An Indian woman holds a bucket and walks to relieve herself in the open, on World Toilet Day on the outskirts of Jammu, India, in 2014.

Indian Court Grants Woman Divorce Over Husband’s Refusal to Install a Household Toilet

Relieving oneself in open fields is common practice in many parts of India, but the government is trying to change that

Carefree, reckless, flappers seemed to enjoy living on the edge, like these atop Chicago’s Sherman Hotel.

Flappers Took the Country by Storm, But Did They Ever Truly Go Away

Women of the Roaring Twenties had a lot in common with today's millennials

"Ignorance = Fear / Silence = Death" by Keith Haring, 1989

New Exhibit Captures Nearly Eight Decades of Protest Art

The show incorporates the various ways artists have responded to the politics and social problems of their times since the 1940s

How Betty Ford's Surprising Progressivism Inspired Millions

Despite being thrust into the role of first lady with no warning, Betty Ford will be remembered as one of the most independent first ladies we've ever had

Illustration made using an 1851 portrait of Mitchell by H. Dassell and a false-color image of supernova remnant Cassiopeia A by NASA.

When Girls Studied Planets and the Skies Had No Limits

Maria Mitchell, America's first female astronomer, flourished at a time when both sexes “swept the sky”

How the Gains Women Made in WWI Were Quickly Lost

In the early 20th century, 96% of all jobs on the U.S. rail network were male. But by the start of WWI, it fell on women to fill in for them

Charlotte Woodward Pierce was just a teenager when she signed the pro-women's-rights "Declaration of Sentiments." She was the only signer of that document to live to see women get the vote.

Only One Woman Who Was at the Seneca Falls Women's Rights Convention Lived to See Women Win the Vote

Charlotte Woodward Pierce was a teenager at the Seneca Falls convention for women's rights. She was 91 when women finally went to vote in 1920

Sheila Michaels explained the power of the honorific "Ms." on the radio in 1969. Word of the broadcast got to Gloria Steinem was looking for a name for her new magazine. The first regular issue of Ms. magazine hit the newsstands in July 1972.

Sheila Michaels, the Feminist Who Made ‘Ms.’ Mainstream, Has Died at 78

The activist championed “Ms.” as a title that would allow women to be seen independently of their marital status

Horatio Greenough’s 12-ton marble statue of George Washington heralds the newly reopened west wing gallery.

Renovated Museum Wing Delves Into Untold Chapters of American History

“The Nation We Build Together” questions American ideals through exhibits on democracy, religion, diversity and more

Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan Macy at a New York flower show, circa 1913.

Three Big Ableist Myths About the Life of Helen Keller

The simple story that's usually told about her today reflects cultural biases that have nothing to do with her actual life

The "abortion pill" (actually two separate medications) can be taken up to 10 weeks after pregnancy, according to the FDA.

The Science Behind the “Abortion Pill”

Legal or not, more American women are opting for abortion by medication. We asked doctors: How safe is it?

Jerrie Cobb stands before a Project Mercury space capsule in heels and gloves. What you can't see: inside the capsule, a male mannequin lies in the place where an astronaut eventually would. The FLATs were never seriously considered for astronaut positions.

Meet the Rogue Women Astronauts of the 1960s Who Never Flew

But they passed the same tests the male astronauts did—and, yes, in high heels

In the past half-century, this tiny object has gone from feminist icon to dangerous villain to, incredibly, feminist icon once again. And no, we're not sure why the background is pink.

From Medical Pariah to Feminist Icon: The Story of the IUD

After decades of being shunned by women and doctors alike, this T-shaped device is enjoying a new surge of popularity

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