Donation Land Claim Act. Allows married women to claim land in their own names. The Act was passed prior to any U.S. treaty negotiations with Native peoples in the area, for whom Oregon had been home for thousands of years. Only “white settlers” and “American half-breed Indians” could claim land, and the Act excluded all non-U.S. citizens, including Native peoples (who were not U.S. citizens), Blacks, and Hawaiians.
Federal law allows “competent” Native women to testify in trials.
Oregon passes miscegenation laws prohibiting whites from marrying African Americans, Chinese Americans, Native Hawaiians, and other Native peoples.
First Oregon woman suffrage organizations form in Albany and Salem.
Abigail Scott Duniway publishes The New Northwest, a women’s rights newspaper.
Mrs. Mary Beatty, an African American woman living in Portland, joins fellow Oregonians Abigail Scott Duniway, Maria Hendee, and Mrs. M.A. Lambert, in casting their votes in the presidential election. The judge does not count their votes.
All Oregon taxpayers, regardless of gender, may vote in school elections.
Married Women’s Property Act. Opens the way for married women in Oregon to own their own property and enter business arrangements without their husband.
First Oregon vote on woman suffrage. For: 11,223 (28 percent); Against: 28,176.
Oregon Supreme Court case State Ex Rel. v. Stevens declares the 1893 law making women eligible for educational office unconstitutional.
Oregon Supreme Court case Harris v. Burr upholds taxpaying women’s right to vote in school elections.
Second Oregon vote on woman suffrage. For: 26,255 (48 percent); Against: 28,402.
Voters adopt the famous Oregon System of initiative and referendum.
Oregon makes it illegal for certain industries, such as factories and laundries, to have women work for more than ten hours per day.
Third Oregon vote on woman suffrage. For: 36,902 (44 percent); Against: 47,075.
Oregon women who marry noncitizens lose their citizenship status. The federal Expatriation Act of 1907, which enacted this status, left affected women with forfeited constitutional rights and subject to deportation. The Cable Act of 1922 nullified this for all except women who married men ineligible for citizenship.
Fourth Oregon vote on woman suffrage. For: 36,858 (39 percent); Against: 58,670.
Fifth Oregon vote on woman suffrage. For: 35,270 (37 percent); Against: 59,065.
Marian B. Towne, a Jackson County Democrat, is the first woman elected to the Oregon House of Representatives.
Kathryn Clarke, a Douglas County Republican, is the first woman elected to the Oregon Senate.
Voters in the City of Umatilla elected an all-female slate of candidates including Mayor Laura J. Starcher, who replaced her husband.
Oregon becomes the twenty-fifth state to ratify the 19th Amendment.
Marie Equi, M.D., begins her prison term for protesting World War I.
Esther Pohl Lovejoy, Democrat from Oregon’s Third District, is the first woman to run for U.S. Congress from Oregon; she gains 44 percent of the vote.
Federal Indian Citizenship Act. Makes U.S. citizenship possible for all Native women.
Nan Wood Honeyman becomes the first Oregon woman elected to the US House of Representatives.
McCarran Walter Act. Enables first generation Asian American women to acquire citizenship.
Maurine Neuberger is the first and only woman to represent Oregon in the U.S. Senate.
Women in the Oregon legislature work to pass laws addressing women’s unequal citizenship in marriage, work, health, and legal status.
Mae Yih (born Chih Feng Dunn) becomes the first Chinese American to serve in a state Senate in the United States. She served in both Oregon House and Senate.
Norma Paulus becomes first woman elected to statewide office as Secretary of State.
Oregon Supreme Court case Gunther v. Washington County expands equal pay for equal work toward comparable worth.
Betty Roberts becomes the first woman on the Oregon Supreme Court.
Vera Katz is first woman to serve as Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives. Of Portland's five Jewish mayors, Vera Katz, who was mayor from 1993 to 2005, is the only woman.
Jackie Taylor is the first Native American elected to the Oregon House.
Avel Louise Gordly becomes the first African-American woman to be elected to the Oregon Senate.
Oregon becomes the first state in the nation to vote exclusively by mail.
Jackie Winters is elected to the Oregon House of Representatives. She was the first African-American Republican ever to serve In the Oregon Legislative Assembly. In 2017, Winters was elected as Senate Minority Leader and became the first African-American legislative leader in Oregon.
Susan Castillo is the first female Lantinx official elected to statewide office as the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Ellen Rosenblum becomes the state’s first female attorney general and the first Jewish person to hold the office.
Teresa Alonso Leon is the first Latina immigrant elected to the Oregon House.
Susheela Jayapal becomes the first South Asian American elected in Oregon to Multnomah County Board of Commissioners.
Jo Ann Hardesty becomes the first African-American woman to serve on the Portland City Council.
Next: Ratification of the 19th Amendment >
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