1961 Barbie gets a job other than modeling

1961 Barbie gets a job other than modeling. Her first career? Registered nurse. Wage gap: Women earn 59 cents to every male dollar.

1963 Passage of the Equal Pay Act, which protects men and women who perform equal work in the same establishment from sex-based wage discrimination. Above, receptionists take phone calls at the Western Electric company Wage gap: Women earn 59 cents to every male dollar.

1970 Forty-six female NEWSWEEK employees become the first group of media professionals to sue for employment discrimination based on gender, under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Their suit coincides with NEWSWEEK’s March 223, 1970 cover about feminism, “Women in Revolt” (next slide) Wage gap: Women earn 59 cents to every male dollar.

1971 The first issue of Ms. Magazine is released as a “one-shot” sample insert in New York Magazine. Wage gap: Women earn 60 cents to every male dollar.

1973 Tennis star Billie Jean King defeats Bobby Riggs, a former Wimbledon men’s singles champion, in the “Battle of the Sexes” King was instrumental in the U. S. Open’s decision that year to pay men and women equally. Wage gap: Women earn 57 cents to every male dollar.

1982 Women surpass men in earning college degrees. Wage gap: Women earn 62 cents to every male dollar.

1983 Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space. Wage gap: Women earn 64 cents to every male dollar

1990 In a lawsuit filed in US district court in Los Angeles, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission rules that American Airlines, the last airline in the US with inflexible weight rules for flight attendants, is violating federal sex- and age -discrimination laws. Wage gap: Women earn 72 cents to every male dollar.

1991 Anita Hill testifies under oath at Clarence Thomas’s Senate confirmation hearings that while he was her supervisor, Thomas had made provocative and harassing sexual statements. Wage gap: Women earn 70 cents to every male dollar.

1993 The fourth Thursday in April is declared Take Your Daughter to Work Day by the Ms. Foundation, an effort to expose teen girls to varied career options and help build their self-confidence. Here, three young girls sit through Hillary Clinton’s congressional testimony in April 2009. Wage gap: Women earn 72 cents to every male dollar.

1996 Oprah Winfrey is named No. 1 on Forbes magazine’s top 40 list of the world’s “highest-paid entertainers. ” Wage gap: Women earn 74 cents to every male dollar.

1997 Madeleine Albright becomes the first female secretary of state. Wage gap: Women earn 74 cents to every male dollar.

2006 Katie Couric, takes the anchor chair at CBS, making her the first woman to host a network nightly news broadcast by herself. Wage gap: Women earn 77 cents to every male dollar.

2005 Harvard University president Lawrence H. Summers says that innate differences between men and women might be one reason fewer women succeed in science and math careers. The uproars and protests that follow his comment forces him to resign. Wage gap: Women earn 77 cents to every male dollar.

2007 Nancy Pelosi: first female speaker of the House, the highest government position ever held by a woman. Wage Gap: Women earn 78 cents to every male do.

2009 President Obama, signs the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which promises “equal pay for equal work”. Wage gap: As of 2008, women earn 77 cents to every male dollar.

2010 Kathryn Bigelow: first woman to win an Oscar for best director, for The Hurt Locker. Wage gap: As of 2008, women earn 77 cents to every male dollar.