Gender & Sexuality

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Young white protesters with signs being interviewed by local news
Abortion
Abortion is defined as either a spontaneous early ending of a pregnancy (a.k.a. miscarriage) or an induced ear...
White woman in white-collared suit and glasses
Act 346 of 2021
Act 346 of 2021, titled “An Act to Prohibit the Performance of a Pelvic Examination on an Unconscious or Ane...
White man in suit and tie smiling with Arkansas flag behind him
Act 626 of 2021
aka: Save Adolescents from Experimentation Act
aka: HB 1570
Act 626 of 2021 was the first ever bill passed in the United State...
Dorathy N. McDonald Allen (1910–1990)
Dorathy N. McDonald Allen was the first woman to serve in the Arkansas Senate, serving from 1964 to 1974 in th...
American Association of University Women (AAUW)
With its national headquarters in Washington DC, the American Association of University Women (AAUW) is a nonp...
White woman in dress and necklace looking down at open book before her
Katharine Susan Anthony (1877–1965)
Katharine Susan Anthony was suffragist, feminist, pacifist, socialist, and author of feminist and psychologica...
African-American woman with short hair in dress
Arkansas Association of Colored Women
aka: Arkansas Association of Colored Women’s and Girls Federated Clubs, Inc.
aka: Arkansas Association of Women’s Clubs, Inc.
aka: Arkansas Association of Women, Youth, and Young Adults Clubs, Inc.
The Arkansas Association of Colored Women (AACW) was organized in 1...
Arkansas Married Woman's Property Law
Under the common law that prevailed in all American jurisdictions except Louisiana, once a woman married, all ...
Older white woman with glasses wearing a beaded necklace and fancy dress
Arkansas Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA)
aka: Arkansas Equal Suffrage Central Committee (AESCC)
aka: State Woman's Suffragist Association
The post–Civil War era saw the beginnings of major social change ...
Older white man in tuxedo standing and smiling with group of white women in hallway
Arkansas Women's Hall of Fame
The Arkansas Women’s Hall of Fame supports the accomplishments and achievements of Arkansas women through an...
White woman with curly hair posing in fancy dress
Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching
In 1930, Texas suffragist and civil rights activist Jessie Daniel Ames and a group of white women in the South...
Crowd of women gathered outside with city buildings and trees in the background
Birth Control Movement
aka: Family Planning Movement
In Arkansas, early marriage and the need for farm labor had long en...
White woman in red dress speaking at a lectern
Ruth Coker Burks (1959–)
Ruth Burks is an Arkansas woman who, in the midst of the 1980s AIDS epidemic, provided support for dozens of m...
White woman with brooch and "Hattie W Caraway" text
Hattie Caraway (1878–1950)
Hattie Ophelia Wyatt Caraway was the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate, the first woman to preside over t...
Newspaper clipping "A White Man Duly Married to a Negro Man"
Chesser and Holly Marriage Case of 1888
On May 10, 1888, James Chesser purchased a marriage license for himself and Georgeanna Holly from the Sebastia...
Clergy Sexual Abuse
Since 2002, when the public became widely aware of sexual abuse of minors by clergy members, an international ...
White woman in long coat inside home
Hilda Cornish (1878–1965)
aka: Brunhilde Kahlert Cornish
Brunhilde Kahlert Cornish was the founder of the Arkansas birth con...
Older white woman with glasses wearing a beaded necklace and fancy dress
Florence Lee Brown Cotnam (1865–1932)
Florence Lee Brown Cotnam was a leader in the women’s suffrage movement in Arkansas, representing the state ...
"History of Suffrage Movement in Arkansas" newspaper clipping
Alice Sankey Ellington (1880–1970)
Alice Sankey Ellington was a leader in the women’s suffrage movement in Arkansas, an officer of the Southern...
Display of political buttons and a pamphlet
Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)
The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is a proposed Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would guarantee equal r...
Women in dresses talking by a fence with schoolhouse and trees
Fayetteville Female Seminary
One of the most influential institutions in early Arkansas was the Fayetteville Female Seminary in Fayettevil...
Eliza A. (Lizzie) Dorman Fyler (1850–1885)
Lizzie Dorman Fyler was an activist in Arkansas in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Although she die...
Gay and Lesbian Students Association v. Gohn
Gay and Lesbian Students Association v. Gohn was a 1988 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth C...
Jean Gordon (1926–2024)
Jean Thomas Gordon devoted her long life to education, social justice, women’s rights, environmental protect...
African American woman in flowing robe riding in a car in a parade
Major Griffin-Gracy (1940s?–2025)
aka: Miss Major
Major Griffin-Gracy, or Miss Major as she was commonly known, was a...
White woman in dress on campaign flyer "Nancy Hall State Treasurer"
Nancy Johnson Hall (1904–1991)
Nancy Pearl Johnson Hall was the first woman to be elected to a constitutional office in Arkansas. A staff mem...
Portrait of white woman in dress
Frances Marion Harrow Hanger (1856–1945)
Frances Marion Harrow Hanger was a clubwoman, civic volunteer, and writer who was central to the cultural and ...
Portrait black man seated smiling goatee striped collared shirt fingers crossed with university ring
E. Lynn Harris (1955–2009)
aka: Everette Lynn Harris
Everette Lynn Harris was a bestselling author of novels about Afric...
Hopkins v. Jegley
Hopkins v. Jegley is an ongoing legal challenge to four abortion restrictions passed by the Arkansas state leg...
Ralph Allen Hyman (1951–)
Ralph Allen Hyman, an activist on behalf of LGBTQ+ rights, as well as for those with AIDS, was the first openl...
Intrastate Commerce Improvement Act
aka: Act 137 of 2015
In response to the 2014 passage of a broad antidiscrimination ordin...
smiling white woman with gray hair wearing glasses earrings in red dress with necklace
Jegley v. Picado
Larry Jegley v. Elena Picado, et al. was a 2002 decision by the Arkansas Supreme Court that struck down Arkans...