Eli Lilly Women’s Timeline with Scientific Advancements – 1960-1979

British primatologist Jane Goodall began studying chimpanzees in Tanzania; her study of them continued for over 50 years. Her observations challenged previous ideas that only humans made tools and that chimpanzees had a basically vegetarian diet.

American medical physicist Rosalyn Yalow received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine “for the development of radioimmunoassays of peptide hormones” along with Roger Guillemin and Andrew V. Schally who received it “for their discoveries concerning the peptide hormone production of the brain”.

German-Canadian metallurgist Ursula Franklin studied levels of radioactive isotope strontium-90 that were appearing in the teeth of children as a side effect of nuclear weapons testing fallout. Her research influenced the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963.

African-American mathematician Katherine Johnson calculated flight paths at NASA for manned space flights.

Indian chemist Asima Chatterjee became the first female recipient of a Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize. She was recognized in the Chemical Sciences category for her contributions to phytomedicine.

South African botanist Margaret Levyns became the first woman president of the Royal Society of South Africa.

French physicist Marguerite Perey became the first female Fellow elected to the Académie des Sciences.

Maria Goeppert Mayer became the first American woman to receive a Nobel Prize in Physics; she shared the prize with J. Hans D. Jensen “for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure” and Eugene Paul Wigner “for his contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles, particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry principles”.

The Equal Pay Act is passed by Congress, promising equitable wages for the same work, regardless of the race, color, religion, national origin or sex of the worker.

British chemist Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for her determinations by X-ray techniques of the structures of important biochemical substances”.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act passes, prohibiting sex discrimination in employment. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is created.

Sister Mary Kenneth Keller became the first American woman to receive a Ph.D. in Computer Science. Her thesis was titled “Inductive Inference on Computer Generated Patterns.”

The Supreme Court establishes the right of married couples to use contraception.

Japanese immunologist Teruko Ishizaka, working with Kimishige Ishizaka, discovered the antibody class Immunoglobulin E (IgE).

British astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell discovered the first radio pulsars.

Sue Arnold became the first female British Geological Survey person to go to sea on a research vessel.

South African radiobiologist Tikvah Alper discovered that scrapie, an infectious brain disease affecting sheep, did not spread via DNA or RNA like a viral or bacterial disease. The discovery enabled scientists to better understand diseases caused by prions.

President Lyndon B. Johnson signs an executive order prohibiting sex discrimination by government contractors and requiring affirmative action plans for hiring women.

California adopts the nation’s first “no fault” divorce law, allowing divorce by mutual consent.

Wellesley College graduate Hillary Clinton becomes the first student to address the graduating class at commencement.

Beris Cox became the first female paleontologist in the British Geological Survey.

Ukrainian-born astronomer Svetlana Gerasimenko co-discovered the 67P/Churyumov– Gerasimenko comet.

Dorothy Hill became the first female president of the Australian Academy of Science.

Samira Islam became the first Saudi Arabian woman to earn a PhD in pharmacology.

Audrey Jackson became the first female field geologist in the British Geological Survey.

Indian-American immunologist Flossie Cohen co-authored the first study demonstrating a biochemical basis for primary immuno-deficiency diseases.

Title IX of the Education Amendments prohibits sex discrimination in all aspects of education programs that receive federal support.

The Supreme Court upholds the right to use birth control by unmarried couples.

Juanita Kreps becomes the first woman director of the New York Stock Exchange.

Landmark Supreme Court ruling Roe v. Wade makes abortion legal. The Supreme Court in a separate ruling bans sex-segregated “help wanted” advertising.

American physicist Anna Coble became the first African-American woman to receive a PhD in biophysics, completing her dissertation at University of Illinois.

Dominican marine biologist Idelisa Bonnelly founded the Dominican Republic Academy of Science.

Housing discrimination on the basis of sex and credit discrimination against women are outlawed by Congress.

The Supreme Court rules it is illegal to force pregnant women to take maternity leave on the assumption they are incapable of working in their physical condition.

The Supreme Court denies states the right to exclude women from juries.

Indian chemist Asima Chatterjee was elected the General President of the Indian Science Congress Association. She simultaneously became the first woman scientist ever elected a member of the congress.

Indian geneticist Archana Sharma received the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, the first female recipient in the Biological Sciences category.

Female officers of the British Geological Survey no longer had to resign upon getting married.

Chien-Shiung Wu became the first female president of the American Physical Society.

Filipino-American microbiologist Roseli Ocampo-Friedmann traveled to the Antarctic with Imre Friedmann and discovered micro-organisms living within the porous rock of the Ross Desert. These organisms – cryptoendoliths – were observed surviving extremely low temperatures and humidity, assisting scientific research into the possibility of life on Mars.

Margaret Burbidge was named the first female president of the American Astronomical Society.

The Association for Women Geoscientists was founded.

Argentine-Canadian scientist Veronica Dahl became one of the first women to earn a PhD in artificial intelligence.

Canadian-American Elizabeth Stern published her research on the link between birth control pills – which contained high levels of estrogen at the time – and the increased risk of cervical cancer development in women. Her data helped pressure the pharmaceutical industry into providing safer contraceptive pills with lower hormone doses.

Anna Jane Harrison became the first female president of the American Chemical Society.

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act bans employment discrimination against pregnant women.