Harriet Tubman
On this day in 2016, Donald Trump denounced the Obama administration plan to place Harriet Tubman’s portrait on the $20 bill as “pure political correctness.” The Democrats never completed their planned redesign. With Trump back in the White House, Tubman is unlikely to go on the $20. #WeTheMen
On this day in 1777, the New York State Constitution defined voters as “male inhabitants.” #WeTheMen
Harriet Tubman
On this day in 2016, the Obama admin. announced that Harriet Tubman would replace Pres. Jackson on the front of the $20. Tubman was an abolitionist & suffragist who freed herself & 100s of others from bondage. Jackson was a slaveholder who removed Native American tribes from their lands. #WeTheMen
On this day in 1977, women in the U.S. House of Representatives formed the Caucus for Women’s Issues. Almost fifty years later, women fill only 28.7% of the voting seats in Congress and only 33.5% of the seats in state legislatures. #WeTheMen
On this day in 2007, the Supreme Court in Gonzales v. Carhart upheld Congress’s Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003. The act prohibited an abortion procedure, even when that procedure was the safest means of performing the abortion. The decision was 5 (men) to 4 (3 men & RBG). #WeTheMen
On this day in 1863, a San Francisco conductor forcibly ejected Charlotte Brown from a “whites-only” streetcar because she was black. She sued and won, but the appellate court reduced the judgment to the 5¢ ticket price. #WeTheMen
She sued again after another ejection and won $500 in 1864.
On this day in 1927, women law students announced a list of the NYC “law firms where embryo Portias are welcome on the same terms as their fellows.” The list was meant to save women “weeks of weary job hunting,” by helping them avoid the many firms that refused to hire female lawyers. #WeTheMen
Myra Bradwell
On this day in 1873, the Supreme Court held in Bradwell v. Illinois that states could continue to exclude women from the legal profession. Myra Bradwell argued “that woman has a right to think and act as an individual.” The men on the Court disagreed. #WeTheMen
I am headed to Rutgers Law School today. I will be speaking about my new book, We the Men: How Forgetting Women’s Struggles for Equality Perpetuates Inequality. I am looking forward to it! #WeTheMen @law.rutgers.edu
The memo is in the Harvard-Radcliffe archives. I discuss Murray's memo and the story of how the "sex amendment" got into Title VII in the first chapter of my book, We the Men: How Forgetting Women's Struggles for Equality Perpetuates Inequality.
Pauli Murray
On this day in 1964, Pauli Murray circulated a memo arguing that black and white women would “share a common fate of discrimination” unless Title 7 of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibited sex discrimination in employment as well as race discrimination. The memo helped keep the “sex amendment” in T7.
Harriet Tubman
On this day in 1976, the U.S. reintroduced the $2 bill. Trump has long opposed the Obama admin. plan to place Harriet Tubman’s portrait on the $20 bill as “pure political correctness.” In 2016, Trump suggested “maybe we do the two dollar bill” for Tubman. The two is the least used bill. #WeTheMen
On this day in 1973, the N.J. Assembly passed a bill prohibiting sex discrimination by lenders. Cynthia M. Jacob, a N.J. lawyer, mobilized for this reform after a local bank refused to give her a car loan because her husband had not signed the application. #WeTheMen
www.nytimes.com/1973/04/13/a...
Jane Bolin
On this day in 1908, Jane Bolin was born. Bolin, America’s first black woman judge, said this about women’s rights in 1958: “Those gains we have made were never graciously and generously granted. We have to fight every inch of the way — in the face of sometimes insufferable humiliations.” #WeTheMen
Dolores Huerta
On this day in 1930, Dolores Huerta was born. She became one of the most important labor & women’s rights activists of 20th century. In 1973, she led a grape boycott that prompted passage of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975, which empowered farm workers to unionize. #WeTheMen
Frances Perkins
On this day in 1880, Frances Perkins was born. As FDR’s Secretary of Labor, she played a vital role in the enactment of Social Security & the minimum wage. Through it all, she kept a file labeled “Notes on the Male Mind,” with strategies for dealing with sexism. #WeTheMen
www.npr.org/2009/04/16/1...
On this day in 1939, Marian Anderson sang a concert at the Lincoln Memorial after the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to let her perform at Constitution Hall because she was black. Need some inspiration? Here’s Anderson singing “My Country, ’Tis of Thee.”
www.npr.org/2014/04/09/2...
Betty Ford
On this day in 1918, Betty Ford was born. She advocated for the ERA & equal employment rights. During 1975’s “International Women’s Year” she said: “this year is not the time to cheer the visible few, but to work for the invisible many, whose lives are still restricted by custom & code.” #WeTheMen
On this day in 1964, Senator Everett Dirksen, the Republican Minority Leader, announced that he would push for removing the “sex amendment” from Title VII the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibited sex discrimination in employment. In #WeTheMen, I tell the story of how women got him to back down.
Ellen Martin
On this day in 1891, Ellen Martin went to the polls in Lombard, IL & demanded to vote. Martin noted that the town’s charter did not explicitly limit voting in town elections to men. The election judges reluctantly agreed with Martin, who reportedly became the 1st woman to vote in Illinois. #WeTheMen
Jeannette Rankin
On this day in 1917, Jeannette Rankin, the first woman elected to Congress, voted against U.S. entry into WWI. One newspaper called Rankin “a dagger in the hands of the German propagandists, a dupe of the Kaiser, a member of the Hun army in the United States, and a crying schoolgirl.” #WeTheMen
America Stands for Choice. Planned Parenthood.
On this day in 1992, over 500,000 people joined a “March for Women’s Lives” in Washington, D.C. The march highlighted the importance of abortion rights & advocated for a proposed federal Freedom of Choice Act, which would have codified Roe’s protections. Congress never voted on the bill. #WeTheMen
Susannah Medora Salter
On this day in 1887, Susannah Medora Salter was elected mayor of Argonia, Kansas, soon after Kansas women won the right to vote in municipal elections. She was the first female mayor in the United States. Men may have placed her name on the ballot as a joke; it backfired. #WeTheMen
Maya Angelou
On this day in 1928, Maya Angelou was born. Her classic poem, Still I Rise, begins by foregrounding the significance of historical erasure:
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
poets.org/poem/still-i...
On this day in 1920, the Democratic party convention for Pitt County, North Carolina, unanimously adopted a resolution opposing the state party’s endorsement of the Nineteenth Amendment.
North Carolina would not ratify the Nineteenth Amendment until 1971. #WeTheMen
Jane Goodall and friend.
On this day in 1934, Jane Goodall was born. She became a pioneering primatologist, conservationist & activist. She later said: “When I wanted to go and live with wild animals, everybody laughed at me.... The other scientists were scornful at first of the findings of this young girl.” #WeTheMen
Women won the vote in Montana in 1914.
Want to know more about the birthright citizenship case before the Supreme Court? I was on WCCO radio with Adam Carter. @wcconews.bsky.social
www.audacy.com/podcast/adam...
Jeannette Rankin
On this day in 1917, Jeannette Rankin took her seat as the first woman elected in Congress. She told fellow suffragists: “I may be the first woman member of Congress, but I won’t be the last.”
Rankin is still the only woman to have represented Montana in Congress. #WeTheMen
The SAVE Act would disenfranchise millions of American women who changed their names after marrying. On this day in 2026, these “biblical patriarchs” think that’s a great idea. #WeTheMen
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/02/u...