Women in the United States

In the early history of the United States, women were largely confined to domestic roles. Labor shortages during World War II led to an influx of women in the workforce, which helped to build toward the women's liberation movement of the 1960s and '70s. Since then, women have gained greater visibility in public life, but significant legal and cultural gaps remain.

The United States has never ratified the U.N.’s Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and has failed to pass the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), leaving women without explicit constitutional protections against sex discrimination.

History

The earliest women living in what is now the United States were Native Americans. European women arrived in the 17th century and brought with them European culture and values. During the 19th century, women were primarily restricted to domestic roles in keeping with Protestant values. The campaign for women's suffrage in the United States culminated with the adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920. During World War II, many women filled roles vacated by men fighting overseas. Beginning in the 1960s, the second-wave feminist movement changed cultural perceptions of women, although it was unsuccessful in passing the Equal Rights Amendment. In the 21st century, women have achieved greater representation in prominent roles in American life.

The study of women's history has been a major scholarly and popular field, with many scholarly books and articles, museum exhibits, and courses in schools and universities. The roles of women were long ignored in textbooks and popular histories. By the 1960s, women were being presented more often. An early feminist approach underscored their victimization and inferior status at the hands of men. In the 21st century, writers have emphasized the distinctive strengths displayed inside the community of women, with special concern for minorities among women.

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Laws

Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women

The United States has never ratified the U.N.'s Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, although it played an important role in drafting the treaty. As of 2014, the United States is thus one of only seven nations which have not ratified it – also including Iran, Palau, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Tonga.

Equal Rights Amendment

38 states as of January 2020 have ratified the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). Three-fourths or 38 out of 50 states are required to ratify a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Several states originally ratified the ERA, but subsequently rescinded the ratification. Recessions in other amendments have been ignored by the courts. The status of the ERA is currently unclear, but cannot be legally implemented due to year deadline constraints.

Legal and Financial Autonomy

Until the passage of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act in 1974, women in the United States were often unable to open a credit card, secure a loan, or even open a bank account without the signature of a husband or male relative. Married women also faced restrictions on property ownership in some states until the late 20th century. Divorce laws historically favored men, leaving women with limited legal recourse and often without financial independence. Although many of these barriers have been lifted, structural inequalities continue to affect women’s ability to access credit, build wealth, and secure economic autonomy.

Voting Rights

The Nineteenth Amendment (1920) granted women the right to vote nationwide, but this right was not equally accessible to all women. Many Black women, particularly in the South, were disenfranchised through poll taxes, literacy tests, and intimidation until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Native American women were not granted U.S. citizenship and suffrage until the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, and state-level restrictions often continued to deny them access to the ballot for decades. Asian American women also faced barriers until discriminatory naturalization laws were repealed in the mid-20th century.

These historical exclusions illustrate that the formal recognition of women’s suffrage in 1920 did not result in universal voting rights for all women in practice.

Child Marriage

Child marriage remains legal in most U.S. states, despite international recognition of the practice as a violation of human rights. As defined by UNICEF, child marriage includes couples who are formally married or who live together as a sexually active couple in an informal union when at least one partner — usually the girl — is under the age of 18.

While federal law sets 18 as the general minimum age of marriage, state laws override this with parental or judicial consent provisions. As of 2023, over 40 U.S. states still allow minors to marry, and several have no absolute minimum age when exceptions are granted. This disproportionately affects girls, often leading to adverse outcomes in education, health, and personal autonomy.

Parental Leave

The United States is the only high income country not to provide required paid parental leave.

Reproductive Rights

Birth control is legal nationwide as of 1965. Abortion was legalized nationwide in 1973 following the Roe v. Wade decision, with states permitted to impose certain regulations short of prohibition after the first trimester. On June 25, 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, removing federal protection for abortion rights and returning authority to individual states. This decision has created a patchwork of laws across the country, with some states enacting near-total bans and others maintaining broader access. Compared to other high-income democracies, the United States now has among the widest disparities in abortion access, depending on geography. Medication abortion—primarily using the drug mifepristone—accounts for the majority of abortions in the U.S., and its legal status has been the subject of ongoing court challenges. Ongoing legal disputes, as well as efforts to restrict or protect abortion at both the state and federal levels, continue to shape reproductive rights in the country.

Healthcare Inequities

The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate among developed nations, with Black women experiencing pregnancy-related deaths at nearly three times the rate of white women.

Access to reproductive healthcare in the U.S. is geographically inconsistent and highly politicized. States vary widely in the availability of abortion, contraception, and maternal healthcare, creating some of the starkest disparities in women’s health outcomes among high-income democracies.

Workplace Inequality and Pay Gap

Despite the passage of the Equal Pay Act of 1963, women in the United States continue to earn less than men on average. In 2022, women earned approximately 82 cents for every dollar earned by men, with the gap significantly wider for Black women and Latina women.

In addition, the United States lacks federally mandated paid maternity leave, making it an outlier among industrialized democracies. The absence of national standards for paid family leave and affordable childcare further contributes to women’s economic inequality.

Violence and Legal Protection

Women in the United States face persistent gaps in legal protection against domestic violence, sexual assault, and workplace harassment. The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), first passed in 1994 and reauthorized several times since, provides federal funding and programs to support survivors. However, enforcement varies by state, and some provisions have been struck down by the Supreme Court of the United States, limiting federal authority to prosecute perpetrators.

The United States also lacks uniform protections for victims of marital rape and stalking, with laws differing widely between states. These gaps mean that women’s access to justice and safety often depends heavily on where they live.

Representation in government

President and Vice President

A woman has never been President of the United States. Kamala Harris is the first woman to become Vice President of the United States, in 2021.

United States House of Representatives

The first woman elected to the United States House of Representatives was in 1917, Jeannette Rankin, who represented Montana. Women who served before her were finishing someone else's term who died in office or had resigned.

In 2007, Nancy Pelosi was elected the 52nd Speaker of the House of Representatives. Pelosi is the only woman in U.S. history to serve as Speaker. In 2019 she was again elected Speaker for the 2nd time (55th) and the first former Speaker to return to the position since 1955. As Speaker, Pelosi was the second highest ranking female elected official and second in the presidential line of succession.

As of 2021, there are 119 women of 435 total in the U.S. House of Representatives, 88 Democrats, 31 Republicans.

United States Senate

In its first 130 years in existence, the Senate was entirely male. In 1931, Hattie Wyatt Caraway was the first woman to win election to the United States Senate. Margaret Chase Smith was the first woman to serve in both the House and the Senate in 1949. In 1992, an unprecedented four women were elected to the Senate, Patty Murray, Dianne Feinstein, Barbara Boxer and Carol Moseley Braun who was also the first woman of color in the Senate. Today, of 100 members of the U.S. Senate, there are 24 women senators, 16 Democrats and 8 Republicans.

Presidential Cabinet

In 1933 Frances Perkins was appointed United States Secretary of Labor under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, making her the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet. In 1949, Georgia Neese Clark was the first woman appointed Treasurer of the United States followed by Oveta Culp Hobby as United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare in 1953.

The 1970s would see several women appointed for the first time in cabinet positions such as Carla Anderson Hills, United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in 1975, Juanita M. Kreps, United States Secretary of Commerce in 1977 and Shirley Hufstedler, Secretary of Education in 1979.

In the 1980s, Elizabeth Dole was appointed United States Secretary of Transportation in 1983. Elaine Chao would become third woman and first Asian American to hold this position in 2017. Susan Engeleiter was appointed the head of the Small Business Administration in 1989.

In the 1993, Janet Reno as United States Attorney General and Sheila Widnall as United States Secretary of the Air Force were the first women appointed to their positions. Three women have served as United States Secretary of State. The first was Madeleine Albright in 1997. In 2005 Condoleezza Rice became the second woman and first person of color to serve in this position. She was succeeded by former First Lady of the United States and U.S. Senator, Hillary Clinton in 2009.

Ann Veneman as United States Secretary of Agriculture, Gale Norton, United States Secretary of the Interior and Susan Livingstone, United States Secretary of the Navy were all the first women appointed to their positions in 2001 and 2003 respectively.

Janet Napolitano became the first woman to be appointed United States Secretary of Homeland Security in 2009 and Gina Haspel was the first woman appointed Director of the Central Intelligence Agency in 2018.

United States Supreme Court

On the Supreme Court, there are four women justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Amy Coney Barrett, and Ketanji Brown Jackson. The first woman justice was Sandra Day O'Connor in 1981 followed by Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 1993.

State and local governments

As of 2021, there are 9 women state governors, 6 Democrats, 3 Republicans; there are 17 Lt. Governors, 10 Democrats, 7 Republicans. Women hold 31.0% of the seats on state legislatures. Of the 100 largest cities in the United States, 31 have a woman as mayor.

Twenty-one state supreme courts (the highest state court) are currently or have been majority female.

Desire to leave the United States

According to a Gallup poll from January 2019, 40 percent of women under the age of 30 would like to leave the United States, as compared with 20 percent of men in the same age group. By about 50 years of age, however, this gender gap disappears.

Rankings

Gender equality ranking

As of 2021, the United States is ranked 30th of 156 applicable countries in gender equality on the World Economic Forum's Gender Gap Index.

Statistics

Education

As of 2014, women in the United States earn more post-secondary (college and graduate school) degrees than men do.

Marriage

As of 2013, the most recent year for which statistics are available, average age at first marriage in the United States is 27 for women and 29 for men.

Workforce

As of 2014, women are 46.5% of the total United States workforce.

Sex discrimination has been outlawed in non-ministerial employment in the United States since 1964 nationwide; however, under a judicially created doctrine called the "ministerial exemption," religious organizations are immune from sex discrimination suits brought by "ministerial employees," a category that includes such religious roles as priests, imams or kosher supervisors.

A woman's median salary in the United States has increased over time, although as of 2014 it is only 77% of man's median salary, a phenomenon often referred to as the Gender Pay Gap. (A woman's average salary is reported as 84% of a man's average salary.) Whether this is due to discrimination is very hotly disputed, while economists and sociologists have provided evidence both supporting and debunking this assertion.

The percentage of women by occupational group in USA for 2022 is shown in table below.

Voting

While the majority of women tend to vote Democratic, they have differences in voting between women of different races. White women tend to vote for the Republican party, black and Hispanic tend to vote for the Democratic party.

Reproductive health

Women's reproductive health in the United States refers to the set of physical, mental, and social issues related to the health of women in the United States. It includes the rights of women in the United States to adequate sexual health, available contraception methods, and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases. The prevalence of women's health issues in American culture is inspired by second-wave feminism in the United States. As a result of this movement, women of the United States began to question the largely male-dominated health care system and demanded a right to information on issues regarding their physiology and anatomy. The U.S. government has made significant strides to propose solutions, like creating the Women's Health Initiative through the Office of Research on Women's Health in 1991. However, many issues still exist related to the accessibility of reproductive healthcare as well as the stigma and controversy attached to sexual health, contraception, and sexually transmitted diseases.

The Department of Health and Human Services has developed a definition for sexual health in the United States based on the World Health Organization's definition of sexual health.

"Sexual health is a state of well-being in relation to sexuality across the life span that involves physical, emotional, mental, social and spiritual dimensions. Sexual health is an intrinsic element of human health and is based on positive, equitable, and respectful approach to sexuality, relationships, and reproduction, that is free of coercion, fear, discrimination, stigma, shame, and violence.

The United States government recognizes that gender is a factor which plays a significant role in sexual health.

Partially influenced by second-wave feminism, women in the U.S. challenged the male dominated healthcare system while also demanding better information and autonomy over their bodies. Initiatives such as the Women’s Health Initiative have improved awareness and research, however, significant barriers still remain. Those barriers include limited access to reproductive services, stigma surrounding sexual health, contraception, and STIs.

Violence

Violence against women has been recognized as a public health concern in the United States. Culture in the country has promoted the trivialization of women-directed violence, with media in the United States creating the appearance of violence against women unimportant to the public.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute of Justice reports that about 1 in every 4 women suffer from at least one physical assault experience from a partner during adulthood. Studies have found that around 20% of women in the United States have been victims of rape with many incidents of rape being underreported according to a 2013 study.