How Have Women's Rights Changed in the Last 100 Years: The Real Story

Honestly, if you took a woman from 1926 and dropped her into a coffee shop today, she’d probably faint. Not because of the $7 lattes—though those are shocking—but because of the sheer autonomy surrounding her. A century ago, the ink was barely dry on the 19th Amendment in the U.S., and across the pond, British women were still two years away from getting the same voting rights as men.

We often treat "progress" like a straight line pointing up. It isn't. It’s been a messy, jagged series of wins, backslides, and quiet revolutions in kitchens and boardrooms. When people ask how have women's rights changed in the last 100 years, they usually expect a list of laws. But the real story is about the transition from being legal "dependents" to becoming independent architects of our own lives.

The Myth of the "Granted" Vote

Most history books say women were "given" the right to vote. That’s a bit like saying a marathon runner was "given" a medal after 26 miles of sprinting through glass.

In 1926, the global landscape of suffrage was a patchwork quilt. While American women had been voting for six years, they weren't all voting. Black women in the South were effectively barred by poll taxes and literacy tests until the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Native American women weren't even considered citizens in many places until the 1920s and faced decades of disenfranchisement afterward.

It’s easy to forget that in France, women didn't vote until 1944. In Switzerland? 1971. In Saudi Arabia? 2015. The right to participate in democracy is a recent phenomenon for a huge chunk of the human population.

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Bread, Butter, and the Battle for the Bank Account

Winning the ballot didn't mean winning the bank. For much of the last century, a woman’s financial life was tethered to a man—either her father or her husband.

In the 1930s, the Great Depression actually saw a backlash against working women. The National Recovery Act of 1932 basically said only one person per family could hold a government job. Guess who got fired first? This "breadwinner" myth kept women in low-paying, "pink-collar" jobs like teaching or nursing.

The real seismic shift happened mid-century. Here’s a breakdown of how the workplace changed:

• The 1940s: World War II forced the world to realize women could build planes and run factories. When the war ended, they were told to go back to the kitchen, but the genie was out of the bottle.
• 1963 & 1964: The Equal Pay Act and the Civil Rights Act (Title VII) made it illegal to pay women less for the same job or refuse to hire them based on sex.
• The 1970s Pivot: This is the decade that changed everything for the "everyday" woman. Before 1974, a bank could—and often would—refuse to give a woman a credit card or a mortgage without a husband's signature. The Equal Credit Opportunity Act finally killed that.

Think about that for a second. Your grandmother might not have been able to get a credit card on her own merit, regardless of her salary.

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Bodily Autonomy: The Quietest Revolution

You can't talk about how have women's rights changed in the last 100 years without looking at healthcare. In the 1920s, "voluntary motherhood" was a radical, often illegal concept.

The introduction of the contraceptive pill in the 1960s was probably the most significant economic event for women in the 20th century. Why? Because for the first time, a woman could plan her education and career without the high probability of an unplanned pregnancy derailing her plans.

But this progress is fragile. The 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade in the U.S. proved that rights we consider "settled" can be rolled back in a single court session. Globally, the battle for reproductive health is even more complex, with some countries expanding access while others tighten restrictions.

The Education Explosion

In 1926, a woman at a university was an outlier, often treated as a guest rather than a peer. Today, women earn more bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees than men in many developed nations.

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Title IX in 1972 wasn't just about sports. It meant a medical school couldn't have a "quota" that limited women to 5% of the class. It fundamentally rewired the professional hierarchy.

What’s Still Broken?

We’ve come a long way, but let’s not get complacent. The "Gender Pay Gap" still hovers around 82 cents on the dollar in the U.S., and it's wider for women of color. This isn't just about "choices"; it’s about the "motherhood penalty"—the statistically proven drop in earnings women face after having children, while men often see a "fatherhood premium."

Then there's the "Second Shift." Even in 2026, studies show that in heterosexual households where both partners work full-time, women still do the lion's share of housework and emotional labor. We have the right to work, but we haven't quite secured the right to rest.

Practical Steps for Moving Forward

Understanding history is great, but what do we do with it? If you want to contribute to the next 100 years of progress, here is where the needle moves:

1. Advocate for Pay Transparency: Support laws that require companies to post salary ranges. This is the single most effective way to close the pay gap.
2. Support Care Infrastructure: Women's rights are intrinsically tied to affordable childcare and paid family leave. Without these, the "right to work" is often a hollow promise.
3. Mentor Up and Down: If you're in a position of power, pull someone else up. If you're starting out, seek out those who have navigated the hurdles before you.
4. Stay Politically Active: As we've seen, laws are not permanent. Voting in local and national elections is the only way to safeguard the autonomy that took a century to build.

The last 100 years were about getting through the door. The next 100 will be about who owns the building.