Timeline of Women's Rights (other Than Voting) - Before The 19th Century

Before The 19th Century

1718

• Russia: Gender segregation is banned
• Sweden: Female taxpaying members of the cities' guilds are allowed to vote and stand for election during the age of liberty; this right is banned (for local elections) in 1758 and (general elections) in 1771
• Province of Pennsylvania (now U.S. state of Pennsylvania): Married women allowed to own and manage property in their own name during the incapacity of their spouse

1722

• Russia: Ban against forced marriages

1753

• Russia: Married women granted separate economy

1754

• Germany: Dorothea Erxleben the first woman doctor.

1771

• New York: Husbands must have their wives' consent to sell their property

1774

• Maryland: Husbands must have their wives' consent to sell their property

1776

• France: Female tailors are allowed into the guild of tailors

1778

• Sweden: Barnamordsplakatet; unmarried women are allowed to leave their home town to give birth anonymously and have the birth registered anonymously, to refrain from answering any questions about the birth and, if they choose to keep their child, to have their unmarried status not mentioned in official documents to avoid social embarrassment.

1786

• Russia: Primary and high schools for females

1787

• Massachusetts: The trade profession is opened to unmarried women

1788

• France: noble widows are known to have voted to the French States-General in 1788–89 in the absence of a male guardian.
• United States of America: Female citizens may stand for election for federal offices, though they still could not vote.

1789

• France is the first country in Europe where it is suggested that women are to be in the Assembly of the Estates, there are several demands to include women in the reforms of the right to vote.

1791

• France: Equal inheritance rights (abolished in 1804)

1792

• France: Divorce is legalized for both sexes (abolished for women in 1804)
• France: Local women-units of the defense army are founded in several cities; although the military was never officially open to women, about eight thousand women were estimated to have served openly in the French armé in local troops (but not in the battle fields) between 1792 and 1794, but women were officially barred from the armé in 1795

1793

• France: The question of women's right to vote is discussed in the Parliament of France; women's right to vote is acknowledged as a principle, but it is still put aside with the explanation that the time is not right to make this a reality and is therefore postponed.