Timeline of Employment Laws and Court Decisions⁶²³

1900: Every state has passed legislation modeled to some degree after New York’s Married Women’s Property Act (1848), granting married women some control over their property and earnings.

1938: The Fair Labor Standards Act establishes a minimum wage without regard to sex.

1963: The Equal Pay Act calls for equitable wages for the same work, regardless of the sex of the worker.

1964: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act passes, including a prohibition against employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, or sex. It enabled women and workers of color to sue employers for discrimination related to their pay or advancement.

1967: The Age Discrimination in Employment Act prevents employers from discriminating against workers age 40 years and older.

1967: Presidential Executive Order 11375 prohibits sex discrimination by government contractors and requires affirmative action plans for hiring women.

1969: The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Weeks v. Southern Bell, 408 F.2d 228, limited restrictive labor laws and company regulations on the hours and conditions of women’s work, opening many previously men-only jobs to women.

1969: The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals rules that women meeting the physical requirements can work in many jobs that had been for men only in Bowe v. Colgate-Palmolive Company, 416 F. 2d 711 (7th Cir.1969).

1970: The Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Shultz v. Wheaton Glass Co., 421 F.2d 259, determined that it is illegal under the Equal Pay Act of 1963 to pay a woman less than a man when she does substantially equal work.

1971: The Supreme Court outlawed the practice of private employers refusing to hire women with preschool children in Phillips v. Martin Marietta Corporation, 400 U.S. 542.

1973: The Supreme Court banned sex-segregated “help wanted” advertising as a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in Pittsburgh Press v. Pittsburgh Commission on Human Relations, 413 U.S. 376 (1973).

1974: The Equal Credit Opportunity Act requires banks and lenders to make credit available equally to all, including women.

1976: The Supreme Court ruled that employers who exclude pregnancy-related benefits from a disability benefits plan do not violate Title VII’s prohibition of sex discrimination in General Elec. Co. v. Gilbert, 429 U.S. 125 (1976).

1978: The Pregnancy Discrimination Act banned employment discrimination against pregnant women and prohibited firing a woman due to pregnancy. This law passed in reaction to the Supreme Court’s decision in General Elec. Co. v. Gilbert, 429 U.S. 125. (See preceding entry.)

1984: The Supreme Court prohibited sex discrimination in membership policies of organizations in Roberts v. U.S. Jaycees, 468 U.S. 609 (1984). This enabled women to join many previously all-male organizations (Jaycees, Kiwanis, Rotary, Lions).

1987: In California Federal Savings & Loan Association v. Guerra, 479 U.S. 272 (1987), the Supreme Court ruled that a California law guaranteeing up to four months of unpaid, job-protected maternity leave did not violate federal law because federal law sets a minimum standard that states may exceed.

1988: The Women’s Business Ownership Act allows women to obtain business financing without a male cosigner.

1989: The Supreme Court held that Price Waterhouse discriminated against Ann Hopkins on the basis of her sex when denying her a partnership because they told her she wasn’t feminine enough by using gender stereotypes.

1993: The Family and Medical Leave Act requires companies or agencies with 50 or more employees to allow employees of 12 months or longer to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for qualifying family and medical reasons each year.

1998: The Supreme Court held that same-sex harassment in the workplace falls under the protection of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and held the sexual orientation of the harasser irrelevant in Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc., 523 U.S. 75.

2005: The Supreme Court ruled that Title IX prohibits punishing someone for complaining about sex-based discrimination in Jackson v. Birmingham Board of Education, 544 U.S. 167.

2009: The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act allows victims, usually women, of pay discrimination to file a complaint with the government against their employer within 180 days of their last paycheck.

2013: The ban against women in military combat positions was removed; this overturned a 1994 Pentagon decision restricting women from combat roles.