Government Documents Guide: Women's Studies

Guide to United States Government Documents related to women, organized chronologically.

Bibliographic Sources (Compiled by the U.S. Archives)

 

1817-1920

Quote taken from an 1866 congressional debate over whether a woman
(Vinnie Ream) should be allowed to sculpt Lincoln's image for the U.S Capitol building. See page in Congressional Globe.

Major Events:

  • Women organize for a variety of causes, including women's suffrage, abolition, and temperence throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries.
  • World War I mobilizes many women to join the workforce.

Women's Rights, Abolition, and Temperence Movements

Midwifery in Early America (Overview from the American Memory Project)

U.S. Congressional Serial Set* (Full Text through 1980)

 Select "Subject" from the drop-down menu and enter the following terms and date ranges:

  • Black Women (Dates: 1817-1923)
  • Legal Status of Women (Dates: 1817-1946)
  • Women's Rights (Dates: 1817 -1920)
  • Women's Suffrage (Dates: 1817-1920)
  • Women's Universities and Colleges (Dates: 1817-1920)
  • Mothers (Dates: 1817-1920)
  • Childbirth (Dates: 1817-1920)
  • Women in the Armed Forces (Dates: 1817- 1920)

The American Memory Project Archives on Women's Suffrage

Statistics of Women at Work, 1907 (United States Census Bureau)

Marriage and Divorce, 1867-1906 (Special Reports of the Census Office)

World War I Manuscripts and Documents (Finding guide from the American Memory Project)

Selected government documents from this time period:
 

1920-1940

Major Events:

  • The 19th Amendment, guaranteeing voting rights regardless of sex, is ratified on August 8, 1920.
  • The Women's Bureau is created within the Department of Labor.

Women's Bureau Website

U.S. Congressional Serial Set Subject Terms:
  • Working Women(Dates: 1920-1940)
  • Subject: Women AND Citation Text: Politic* (Dates: 1920-1940)

Legislating Contraception (Overview from the Library of Congress American Memory Project)

   Hearings before a subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary, 1932.

   Also available under LexisNexis Congressional Hearings.*

  • Click Advanced Search
  • Select Hearings: 1824-present
  • Enter "birth control" and select dates 1920-1940
 

1940-1960

Major Events:

  • World War II labor shortages give women the opportunity to enter the workforce in large numbers.
  • The Civil Rights Movement gains strength, with the involvement of numerous women.

WPA Posters, 1936-1943 (American Memory Project)

World War I and II Posters (American Memory Project)

World War II Manuscripts and Documents (American Memory Project)

U.S. Congressional Serial Set Subject Terms:

  • Women in the Armed Forces (Dates: 1940-1950)
  • War Brides (Dates: 1940-1960)
  • Women's Employment (Dates: 1940-1950)

Spotlight on Women in the United States, 1957-57 (U.S. Dept. of Labor, Women's Bureau)

An Act of Courage: The Arrest Records of Rosa Parks (National Archives)

Women in the Civil Rights Movement (Overview from the American Memory Project)

Quotes from government documents from this time period:

"In the Army you will frequenly see members of the Women's Army Corps (WAC.) Accord them the same respect you extend male officers... There are some men who argue that women have stepped off their pedestals and don't deserve to be respected.... Do not be misled by loose-talking scoundrels." --taken from Personal Conduct for the Soldier, Department of the Army Pamphlet, February 1949, pp. 13-14.(Call number D101.22: 21-41)

 
 

1960-1980

 

 

Major Events:

  • The Equal Pay Act is authorized in 1963.
  • The Supreme Court makes a series of crucial decisions affecting women's rights.

1963: President Kennedy signs the Equal Pay Act

1969: President Nixon creates the Presidents Task Force for Women's Rights and Responsibilities

The Equal Rights Amendment Overview from the (American Memory Project)

Landmark Supreme Court Cases: 1960-1970

    The 1960's and 1970's featured several major supreme court cases involving women and civil rights. Major documents from these cases can be found in Lexis Nexis Academic.*

  • Click the Legal Tab
  • Click Federal and State Cases
  • Use the case name search, or search by subject and specify dates

Major Cases:

  • Meredith v. Fair (1962)- Constance Baker Motley successfully argues to the Supreme Court that James Meredith should be admitted to the University of Mississipi despite segregation at that institution
  • Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)- Supreme Court determines that Connecticut's ban on the distribution of contraceptive devices or information violates a married couples' right to privacy.
  • Loving v. Virginia (1967)-the Supreme Court determines that Virginia's ban on interracial marriage is unconstitutional
  • Reed v. Reed (1971)-the Supreme Court determines that a law that discriminates on the basis of sex unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment
  • Phillips v. Martin Marietta (1971)-the Court determines that an employer violates Tilte VII when refusing to hire women with young children while hiring men with similar family situations
  • Roe v. Wade (1973)-the Supreme Court rules that a Texas law prohibiting abortion is in violation of the right to privacy
  • Stanton v. Stanton (1975)-the Supreme Court strikes down a law setting the age of majority for women at eighteen and for men at twenty-one, based on the assumption that women need less education and preparation for adulthood than do men.

Major Supreme Court Decisions on Women's Rights (ACLU Interactive Timeline, 1971-2006)

Selected government documents from this time period:

Quotes from government documents from this time period:

The U.S. House Committee on Un-American Activities published a Guide to Subversive Organizations in 1961. In it, they listed an organization called "Sweethearts of Servicemen." The complete description of this "subversive organizatioin" follows: "A division of the AYD [American Youth for Democracy] born during the last war is the organization known as 'Sweethearts of Servicemen.' Its maiden effort was a delegation of 75 young women who arrived in Washington to petition Congress to 'give their soldier boy friends and husbands the chance to vote in the 1944 Presidential elections.'" (p. 156)

 
 

1980-present

Major events:

  • Family and Medical Leave Act Authoried in 1993.
  • Violence Against Women Act Authorized in 1996.

Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993

Website of the Office on Violence Against Women (Created 1996)

Supreme Court cases available in Lexis Nexis Academic:

  • Roster v. Goldberg (1981) - the Supreme Court decides that mandatory draft laws that only apply to men are constitutional because of the special status of statutes related to military service.
  • Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson (1986) - the Court holds that sexual harrassment that creates a hostile work environment is a form of sex discrmination prohibited by Title VII.
  • Miller v. Albright (1999) -the Supreme Court upholds immigration laws that feature different provisions for fathers seeking to transfer citizenship to their foreign-born children.
  • Gonzalez v. Carhart (2007) - the Court upholds the Partial Birth Abortion Act, banning the abortion procedure of intact dilation and extraction
  • Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (2007) - the Supreme Court decides that an employee cannot sue an employer over sex-based pay discrimination if the complaint is not filed within 180 days after the discrimination occurs. Congress responded to this decision by passing the Lilly Ledbetter Equal Pay Act of 2009 (.pdf).

 

Selected government documents from this time period:

 

*U.S. Congressional Serials Set and LexisNexis databases are accessible by MU affiliates only.

Content created by Lauren Magnuson, May 2009