1800s

1900s

2000s

1805: Sacagawea travels to Oregon with the Lewis and Clark Expedition, serving as a guide, interpreter, and mediator. She participates in a vote in 1805, probably the first woman in Oregon to vote. 

1850: The Donation Land Act Claim allows married white women to claim land in Oregon Territory in their own names. 

1857: Oregon Constitutional Convention declares only white men can vote. White women can own land regardless of marital status.

1864: Indigenous women are allowed to testify in trials. 

1872: Abigail Scott Duniway is invited to the Oregon Legislature to make the case for women’s suffrage. Duniway and two other white women (Maria P. Hendee and Mary Ann King Lambert) and one Black woman (Mary Beatty) attempt to cast ballots in the presidential election, claiming their rights under the 14th and 15th Amendments. Their ballots are accepted but not counted. 

1872-73: Winema “Toby” Riddle, a Modoc woman, serves as an interpreter and mediator during the Modoc War; she receives a pension from the US government for her service. 

1873: First convention of the Oregon State Woman Suffrage Association.

1881: Bethenia Owens-Adair is the first woman to practice medicine in Oregon, having received her medical degree the year before at the age of 40. 

1892: Marie Equi is considered Oregon’s first out lesbian; she would live publicly with several female partners.

1893: Women are now allowed to hold all educational offices, not just “teacher;” this is declared unconstitutional in 1896.

1907: Women who marry non-US citizens lose their citizenship status; this is repealed in 1922. 

1908: Lola Green Baldwin is sworn in to the Portland Police Bureau as the first female police officer in the United States.

1909: Carolyn Shelton serves as governor for a day when the former governor resigns and the new governor is too ill to be sworn in.

1912: Oregon becomes the seventh state to pass a woman’s suffrage amendment. 

1914: Marian B. Towne is the first woman elected to the Oregon House of Representatives.

1915: Dr. Marie Equi and Harriet Speckart adopt an infant girl, the first adoption by a lesbian couple in Oregon. Also this year Kathryn Clarke is the first woman elected to the Oregon Senate. 

1916: Umatilla has an all women city council. Burns and Yoncalla would follow with their own all female “Petticoat Governments” in 1920. Also in this year, Margaret Sanger is arrested in Portland for distributing pamphlets about birth control. 

1920: Thelma Payne Sanborn is the first Oregon woman to compete and medal in the Olympics (springboard diving). 

1921: Women are allowed to sit on juries. 

1924: Native American women gain US citizenship.

1927: People of Chinese descent can now vote in Oregon. 

1937: Nan Wood Honeyman is the first female Oregonian elected to US Congress. 

1940s: Oregonian Jeanne Holm becomes the first female general in the Air Force and first female two-star general in the Armed Forces; she would later become the first female Brigadier General in the Air Force in 1971. 

1955: McMinnville-born author Beverly Cleary publishes beloved classic Beezus and Ramona. 

1960: Maurine Brown Neuberger is the first and only female Oregonian to serve in the US Senate. 

1968: Portland author Ursula K. Le Guin receives wide acclaim for her novel Earthsea. Also in this year, Betty Roberts must threaten legal action for the State Bar, Oregonian, and elections division to call her by her correct name, rather than using her husband’s last name. 

1973: Peggy Burton is fired for being a lesbian; her subsequent lawsuit would set precedent for LGBT law.

1974: A woman named Parrish writes about her transition, including surgery at OHSU, for The Oregon Journal. 

1975: The Oregon Women’s Land Trust opens in Douglas County, providing a place for women and their children to gather and live outside of the dominant culture. Also this year, the Bonnie Tinker House (now part of Bradley Angle) opens as the first domestic violence shelter on the West Coast. 

1976: Norma Paulus is the first woman elected to state office (Secretary of State). Also this year, Mae Yih is the first Chinese American to serve in a State Senate. 

1984: Margaret Carter is the first Black woman in the Oregon Legislative Assembly. 

1990: Jackie Taylor is the first Native American woman in the Oregon House of Representatives.

1991: Barbara Roberts becomes the first female governor of Oregon. Also this year, lesbian Gail Shibley becomes the first open LGBT member of of the Oregon Legislature. 

1996: Susan Castillo is the first Hispanic woman in the Oregon Legislature. Avel Louise Gordly is the first Black woman elected to the State Senate. 

2007: The Oregon Equality Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation. 

2012: Ellen Rosenblum is first female attorney general (and first Jewish attorney general). Also this year, Sasha Buchert is the first transgender person appointed to an Oregon State Board (Hospital Advisory Board). She currently serves on counsel for cases involving transgender issues at the state and federal level, including the ban on transgender people serving in the military. 

2013: Oregonian Laura Calvo is the second transgender member of the Democratic National Committee, and the first to be elected rather than appointed. 

2015: Kate Brown becomes the first openly LGBT state governor. 

2022: Tina Kotek, elected governor in 2022, is the first openly lesbian elected speaker of a state house (2013), longest serving Oregon Speaker of the house, one of the first two openly lesbian women elected to governor, third openly LGBT governor, and third female governor of Oregon.