# Timeline of women's education

This Timeline of women's education is an overview of the history of education for women worldwide. It includes key individuals, institutions, law reforms, and events that have contributed to the development and expansion of educational opportunities for women.
The timeline highlights early instances of women's education, such as the establishment of girls' schools and women's colleges, as well as legal reforms like compulsory education laws that have had a significant impact on women's access to education.
The 18th and 19th centuries saw significant growth in the establishment of girls' schools and women's colleges, particularly in Europe and North America. Legal reforms began to play a crucial role in shaping women's education, with laws being passed in many countries to make education accessible and compulsory for girls.
The 20th century marked a period of rapid advancement in women's education. Coeducation became more widespread, and women began to enter fields of study that were previously reserved for men. Legislative measures, such as Title IX in the United States, were enacted to ensure equality in educational opportunities.
The timeline also reflects social movements and cultural shifts that have affected women's education, such as the women's suffrage movement, which contributed to the broader fight for women's rights, including education.
Various international organizations and initiatives have been instrumental in promoting women's education in developing countries, recognizing the role of education in empowering women and promoting social and economic development.
This timeline illustrates how women's education has evolved and reflects broader societal changes in gender roles and equality.

## BCE

| Year | Location | Milestone |
| c. 2500 | Ancient Egypt | Peseshet, known as the "Overseer of Female Physicians" |
| c. 2285–2250 | Ancient Mesopotamia | Enheduanna appointed as high priestess and becomes one of the earliest known authors. |
| c. 2000 | Ancient Egypt | Evidence of women being educated as scribes. |
| c. 800–500 | Ancient India | Gargi Vachaknavi participates in philosophical debates in the royal court. |
| c. 800–500 | Ancient India | Maitreyi, a scholar, is involved in philosophical discussions in the Upanishads. |
| c. 600 | Ancient Greece | Spartan women receive physical education, which was rare in Greece. |
| c. 600 | Ancient Greece | Theano actively engages in philosophical studies and writings. |
| 550–300 | Ancient Persia | Achaemenid period records indicate that royal women were educated and some took part in administrative roles. |
| c. 195–c. 115 | Ancient Rome | Cornelia Africana, mother of the Gracchi brothers, educates her children and emphasizes learning. |
| c. 100 | Ancient Rome | Roman women, including the poet Sulpicia, engage in literary pursuits. |

## 1–1200 CE

| Year | Location | Milestone |
| c. 100 CE | Ancient China | Ban Zhao writes "Lessons for Women," an influential text on women's education. |
| 664 CE | England | Hilda of Whitby oversees Whitby Abbey, a center of learning. |
| 700-1200 CE | Islamic Golden Age (countries) | A sponsorship system allows many women to study Hadith, Islamic law, and more. |
| 705 CE | England | Wimborne Minster, an Anglo-Saxon double monastery, provides education for women. |
| c. 750 CE | Germany | Leoba is appointed abbess of the monastery of Tauberbischofsheim, contributing to education. |
| 859 CE | Morocco | Fatima al-Fihri founds the future University of Al Quaraouiyine (founded as a mosque, it was made in to a university in 1963). |
| c. 1000 CE | Ancient Japan | Women contribute to literature, such as Murasaki Shikibu, author of "The Tale of Genji." |
| c. 1140 CE | Byzantine Empire | Anna Komnene is educated in Greek literature, history, philosophy, theology, mathematics, and medicine. She contributes to literary works and writes the Alexiad. |
| 1185 CE | Alsace | Herrad of Landsberg compiles "Hortus Deliciarum," an educational work for women. |

## 13th to 16th centuries

| Year | Location | Milestone |
| Early to mid-13th century | Northern Europe | Beguine communities begin to flourish, providing informal religious education for women. |
| c. 1225 | England | "Ancrene Wisse," a manual for anchoresses, is written, reflecting the religious education available to some women. |
| 1237 | Italy | Bettisia Gozzadini earns a law degree at the University of Bologna. |
| 1239 | Italy | Bettisia Gozzadini teaches law at the University of Bologna. First woman believed to teach at a university (first university established in 1088). |
| c. 1250 | Germany | Mechthild of Magdeburg, a Beguine, writes "The Flowing Light of the Godhead," a significant piece of Christian mysticism. |
| 1390 onwards | Italy | Dorotea Bucca holds a chair of medicine and philosophy in the University of Bologna for 40 years. |
| | Italy | Novella d'Andrea teaches law at the University of Bologna. |
| 7 November 1376 | Italy | Virdimura of Catania obtains a royal medical license to practice medicine after an examination by the doctors of the royal court. |
| fl. 1415 | Italy | Constance Calenda may have received a medical degree from the University of Naples Federico II. |
| c. 1500 | Spain | Luisa de Medrano teaches at the University of Salamanca and writes works of philosophy, now lost. |
| c. 1500 | Spain | Isabella Losa gets a D.D. (Doctor of Divinity) theology degree. |
| c. 1500 | Spain | Francisca de Lebrija teaches rhetoric at the University of Alcalá. |
| c. 1500 | Spain | Beatriz Galindo excels in Latin, studies at one of the institutions dependent on the University of Salamanca, writes commentary on Aristotle and becomes a teacher of the queen. |
| 1551 | Spain | Real Colegio de Doncellas Nobles is founded. |
| 1571 | Sweden | The Swedish Church Ordinance 1571 stipulates that both boys and girls should be given basic schooling such as reading, writing, counting and basic commercial skills. |

## 17th century

| Year | Location | Milestone |
| c. 1600 | Modern-day Nigeria | Queen Amina of Zazzau receives military training and education. |
| 1608 | Spain | Juliana Morell "defended theses" in 1606 or 1607 in Lyon or maybe Avignon, although claims that she received a doctorate in canon law in 1608 have been discredited. According to Lope de Vega, she taught "all the sciences from professorial chairs". |
| 1636 | Netherlands | German-born Dutch Anna Maria van Schurman, proficient in 14 languages, studies as the first female student at Utrecht University, Netherlands, but without obtaining a degree. |
| 1639 | Acadia | The French colony of Acadia, which at the time included part of Maine, had an Ursuline boarding school by 1639 that was geared toward the education of young girls. The school was founded in Quebec City and is still in operation today. |
| 1644 | Sweden | First female college students, Ursula Agricola and Maria Jonae Palmgren. |
| 1674 | New Spain | In this year, Bishop Calderon of Santiago wrote to Queen Mother Maria Anna concerning the Spanish efforts at colonizing Florida. In his letter he included some comments about the state of education and stated, "The children, both male and female, go to church on work days, to a religious school where they are taught by a teacher whom they call Athequi of the church; [a person] whom the priests have for this service." This description indicates that the colonies of New Spain had facilities for female education at least by the 1600s. It is not clear how far back this goes; the 1512 laws of Burgos, from over a hundred years earlier, did not specify whether instruction should be for males only: it uses the word hijos, which means sons, but can include daughters if they are mixed in with the boys. |
| 1678 | Italy | Elena Cornaro Piscopia, an Italian woman, earns a Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy) degree from the University of Padua in Italy and is said to have taught mathematics at the University of Padua. |
| 1684 | France | The Maison royale de Saint-Louis is founded. |
| 1685 | Italy | Rosa Venerini opens the first free school for girls in Italy, in the town of Viterbe. |
| 1698 | Germany | The first secular secondary education girls' school in Germany is established by the Pietist August Hermann Francke in Halle, and becomes a pioneer institution for a number of girls' schools in Germany during the 18th century. |

## 18th century

| Year | Location | Milestone |
| 1727 | United States | Founded in 1727 by the Sisters of the Order of Saint Ursula, Ursuline Academy, New Orleans, is both the oldest continuously operating school for girls and the oldest Catholic school in the United States. The Ursuline Sisters founded this school out of the conviction that the education of women was essential to the development of a civilized, spiritual and just society, and has influenced culture and learning in New Orleans by providing an education for its women. |
| 1732 | Italy | Laura Bassi, an Italian woman, earns a Ph.D. degree at the University of Bologna in Italy, and teaches physics at the same university. She was the first woman to have a doctorate in science. Working at the University of Bologna, she was also the first salaried woman teacher in a university, and at one time she was the highest paid employee. She was also the first woman member of any scientific establishment, when she was elected to the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna in 1732. |
| 1742 | United States | At only 16 years of age, Countess Benigna von Zinzendorf establishes the first all-girls boarding school in America, sponsored by her father Count Nicholas von Zinzendorf. Originally known as the Bethlehem Female Seminary upon its 1742 founding, it changed its name to Moravian Seminary and College for Women by 1913. 1863 proved the Germantown, Pennsylvania-based school's most landmark year, however, when the state recognized it as a college and granted it permission to award bachelor's degrees. As a result, most tend to accept Moravian as the oldest—though not continuously operational because of its current co-ed status—specifically female institute of higher learning in the United States. |
| 1751 | Italy | Cristina Roccati becomes the third woman to receive a Ph.D. degree in Italy. |
| 1764 | Russia | Foundation of the Smolny Institute. |
| 1765 | Russia | Foundation of the Novodevichii Institute. |
| 1783 | United States | Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, appoints the first women instructors at any American college or university, Elizabeth Callister Peale and Sarah Callister, members of the famous Peale family of artists. They teach painting and drawing. |
| 1786 | Russia | Catherine the Great opens free public primary and high school education to girls. |
| 1787 | Germany | Dorothea von Rodde-Schlözer becomes the first German woman to earn a Ph.D. from the University of Göttingen. |
| 1787 | Sweden | Societetsskolan is founded. |
| 1787 | Denmark | J. Cl. Todes Døtreskole is founded. |
| 1788 | Sweden | Aurora Liljenroth becomes the first female college graduate. |
| 1791 | Denmark | One of the first schools of any note for girls is established as Døtreskolen af 1791. |

## 19th century
### 1800–1849

| Year | Location | Milestone |
| 1803 | United States | Bradford Academy in Bradford, Massachusetts, was the first higher educational institution to admit women in Massachusetts. It was founded as a co-educational institution, but became exclusively for women in 1836. |
| 1818 | India | Western Christian missionaries open the first western-style charter schools in India open to girls. |
| 1822 | Serbia | Girls are allowed to attend elementary schools with boys up until the fourth grade. |
| 1823 | Argentina | The Sociedad de Beneficencia de Buenos Aires is charged by the government to establish and control (private) elementary schools for girls, retaining control of the schools for girls until 1876. |
| 1826 | United States | The first American public high schools for girls are opened in New York and Boston. |
| 1827 | Brazil | The first elementary schools for girls are opened and the profession of school teacher is established. |
| 1829 | United States | The first public examination of an American girl in geometry is held. |
| 1830s | Egypt | Christian missionaries are allowed to open elementary schools for girls. |
| 1831 | United States | As a private institution in 1831, Mississippi College becomes the first coeducational college in the United States to grant a degree to a woman. In December 1831 it grants degrees to two women, Alice Robinson and Catherine Hall. |
| 1834 | Greece | Primary education becomes compulsory for both boys and girls, in parallel with the foundation of the first private secondary educational schools for girls, such as the Arsakeio. |
| 1834 | Iran | The Fiske Seminary, first school for girls, is opened in Urmia. |
| 1836 | United States | Bradford Academy in Bradford, Massachusetts, due to declining enrollment, becomes a single-sexed institution for the education of women exclusively. |
| 1837 | United States | Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, opens as Mount Holyoke Seminary. Founded by Mary Lyons, it becomes one of the first institutions of higher learning for women in the United States. |
| 1839 | United States | Established in 1836, Georgia Female College in Macon, Georgia, opens its doors to students on January 7, 1839. Now known as Wesleyan College, it is the first college in the world chartered specifically to grant bachelor's degrees to women. |
| 1840s | Denmark | In the 1840s, schools for girls spread outside the capital and a net of secondary education girl schools is established in Denmark. |
| 1841 | Bulgaria | The first secular girls school make education and the profession of teacher available for women. |
| 1842 | Sweden | Compulsory elementary school for both sexes is introduced. |
| 1842 | Singapore | Maria Dyer founds the oldest girls' school in Singapore. Initially known as the "Chinese Girls' School", it is now called St. Margaret's Secondary School). |
| 1843 | Ghana | Catherine Mulgrave arrives on the Gold Coast from Jamaica and subsequently establishes three boarding schools for girls at Osu (1843), Abokobi (1855) and Odumase (1859) between 1843 and 1891. |
| 1844 | Finland | The Svenska fruntimmersskolan i Åbo and its sister school Svenska fruntimmersskolan i Helsingfors are founded in Helsinki. |
| 1846 | Denmark | The first college for women in Denmark, the teachers seminary Den højere Dannelsesanstalt for Damer, is opened in 1846. |
| 1847 | Costa Rica | The first high school for girls, and the profession of teacher, are opened to women. |
| 1847 | Ghana | Rosina Widmann opens a vocational school for girls in January 1847, with the first classes in needlework for 12 girls at her home in Akropong in the Gold Coast colony. |
| 1848 | India | The elementary school for girls, Bhide Wada, in Pune is opened by Savitribai Phule and her husband. |
| 1849 | United States | Elizabeth Blackwell, born in England, becomes the first woman to earn a medical degree from an American college, Geneva Medical College in New York. |
| 1849 | United Kingdom | Bedford College opens in London as the first higher education college for women in the United Kingdom. It later merges with Royal Holloway College, to form Royal Holloway, University of London. |
| 1849 | India | Secondary education for girls is made available with the foundation of the Bethune College. |

### 1850–1874

| Year | Location | Milestone |
| 1850 | United States | Lucy Stanton earns a literary degree from Oberlin College, becoming the first Black woman in the United States to receive a college degree. |
| 1850 | France | Elementary education is established for both sexes, but girls are only allowed to be tutored by teachers from the church. |
| 1850 | United Kingdom | North London Collegiate School, the first school in England to offer girls the same educational opportunities as boys, opens. |
| 1850 | Haiti | First permanent school for girls, the Institution Mont-Carmel, is founded by Marie-Rose Léodille Delaunay. |
| 1851 | Ghana | Regina Hesse moves into the household of her mentor, Catherine Mulgrave and her spouse, Johannes Zimmermann to understudy the methods of pedagogy. She later became the de facto principal of Mulgrave's girls' school at Christiansborg. |
| 1852 | Nicaragua | Josefa Vega is granted dispensation to attend lectures at university, after which women are given the right to apply for permission to attend lectures at university (though not to an actual full university education). |
| 1853 | Egypt | The first Egyptian school for females is opened by Copts. |
| 1853 | Serbia | The first secondary educational school for females is inaugurated (public schools for girls having opened in 1845–46). |
| 1853 | Sweden | The profession of teacher at public primary and elementary schools is opened to both sexes. |
| 1854 | Chile | The first public elementary school for girls is opened. |
| 1855 | United States | University of Iowa becomes the first coeducational public or state university in the United States. |
| 1857 | Netherlands | Elementary education is made compulsory for both girls and boys. |
| 1857 | Spain | Elementary education is made compulsory for both girls and boys. |
| 1858 | United States | Mary Fellows becomes the first woman west of the Mississippi River to receive a baccalaureate degree. |
| 1858 | Ottoman Empire | The first state school for girls is opened; several other schools for girls are opened during the following decades. |
| 1858 | Russia | Gymnasium high schools are opened for girls. |
| 1859 | Denmark | The post of teacher at public schools is opened to women. |
| 1859 | Ghana | Rose Ann Miller starts an all-girls' boarding school at Aburi under the auspices of the Basel Mission. |
| 1859 | Sweden | The post of college teacher and lower official at public institutions are open to women. |
| 1860 | Norway | Women are allowed to teach in the rural elementary school system (in the city schools in 1869). |
| 1861 | Sweden | The first public institution of higher academic learning for women, the Royal Seminary, is opened. |
| 1862 | United States | Mary Jane Patterson becomes the first African-American woman to earn a BA in 1862. She earned her degree from Oberlin College. |
| 1862 | Canada | Mount Allison University opens to women. |
| 1863 | Serbia | Inauguration of the Women's High School in Belgrade, first high school open to women in Serbia (and the entire Balkans). |
| 1863 | United States | Mary Corinna Putnam Jacobi graduates from the New York College of Pharmacy in 1863, making her the first woman to graduate from a United States school of pharmacy. |
| 1864 | Belgium | The first official secondary education school opens to girls in Belgium. |
| 1864 | Haiti | Elementary schools for girls are founded. |
| 1864 | United States | Rebecca Lee Crumpler becomes the first African-American woman to graduate from a U.S. college with a medical degree, and the first and only Black woman to obtain the Doctress of Medicine degree from Boston University in Boston, Massachusetts. |
| 1865 | Romania | The educational reform grants all Romanians access to education. At least formally, this gave females the right to attend school from elementary education to the university. |
| 1866 | United States | Sarah Jane Woodson Early becomes the first African-American woman to serve as a professor. Xenia, Ohio's Wilberforce University hired her to teach Latin and English in 1866. |
| 1866 | United States | Lucy Hobbs Taylor becomes the first American woman to earn a dental degree (from the Ohio College of Dental Surgery). |
| 1866 | Sweden | The Girls' School Committee of 1866 is established. |
| 1867 | Switzerland | University of Zurich formally opens to women, though they had already been allowed to attend lectures for a few years. |
| 1868 | Croatia | The first high school opens to girls. |
| 1869 | United States | Fanny Jackson Coppin is named principal of the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia, becoming the first Black woman to head an institution for higher learning in the United States. |
| 1869 | Austria-Hungary | The profession of public school teacher is open to women. |
| 1869 | Costa Rica | Elementary education is made compulsory for both girls and boys. |
| 1869 | Ottoman Empire | Compulsory elementary education is formally introduced for both boys and girls. |
| 1869 | Russia | University courses for women are opened, which opens the profession of teacher, law assistant and similar lower academic professions for women (in 1876, the courses are no longer allowed to give exams, and in 1883, all outside of the capital are closed). |
| 1869 | United Kingdom | In Edinburgh, the Watt Institution and School of Arts, a predecessor of Heriot-Watt University, admits women. Mary Burton persuades the Watt Institution and School of Arts to open its doors to women students in 1869 and goes on to become the first woman on the school's board of directors and a life governor of Heriot-Watt College. |
| 1869 | United Kingdom | The Edinburgh Seven are the first group of matriculated undergraduate female students at any British university. They began studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh in 1869 and although they were unsuccessful in their struggle to graduate and qualify as doctors, the campaign they fought gained national attention and won them many supporters, including Charles Darwin. It put the rights of women to a university education on the national political agenda which eventually resulted in legislation to ensure that women could study at university in 1877. |
| 1869 | United Kingdom | Girton College opens as the first residential college for women in the United Kingdom. |
| 1870 | United States | The first woman is admitted to Cornell University. |
| 1870 | United States | The Board of Regents of the University of California rules that women should be admitted on an equal basis with men. With the completion of North and South Halls in 1873, the university relocated to its Berkeley location with 167 male and 222 female students. |
| 1870 | United States | Ada Kepley becomes the first American woman to earn a law degree, from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. |
| 1870 | United States | Ellen Swallow Richards becomes the first American woman to earn a degree in chemistry, which she earned from Vassar College in 1870. |
| 1870 | Finland | Women are allowed to study at the universities by dispensation (dispensation requirement dropped in 1901). |
| 1870 | Spain | The Asociación para la Enseñanza de la Mujer is founded, promoting education for women; it establishes secondary schools and training colleges all over Spain, making secondary and higher education open to females for the first time. |
| 1870 | Sweden | Universities open to women (on the same terms as men in 1873). |
| 1871 | United States | Frances Willard becomes the first women's college president in the United States, as president of Evanston College for Ladies in Illinois. |
| 1871 | United States | Harriette Cooke becomes the first woman college professor in the United States,omes appointed full professor with a salary equal to that of her male peers. |
| 1871 | Ottoman Empire | The American College for Girls, initially known as The Home School, is opened in Constantinople to educate women as professional teachers for girls' schools; the profession of teacher becomes accessible for women and education accessible to girls. |
| 1871 | Netherlands | Aletta Jacobs becomes the first woman to be accepted at the University of Groningen. |
| 1871 | India | The first training school for women teachers is opened. |
| 1871 | Japan | Women are allowed to study in the USA (though not yet in Japan itself). |
| 1871 | New Zealand | Universities open to women. |
| 1872 | Sweden | First female university student: Betty Pettersson. |
| 1872 | Japan | Compulsory elementary education for both girls and boys. |
| 1872 | Ottoman Empire | The first government primary school is opened for both genders. The Women's Teacher's Training School opens in Istanbul. |
| 1872 | Russia | Establishment of the Guerrier Courses. |
| 1872 | Spain | María Elena Maseras is allowed to enlist as a university student with special dispensation. After being formally admitted to a class in 1875, she was finally allowed to graduate in 1882, creating a precedent for women to enroll at universities from this point on. |
| 1873 | United States | Linda Richards becomes the first American woman to earn a degree in nursing. |
| 1873 | Egypt | The first public Egyptian primary school for girls is opened. Two years later, there are 32 primary schools for females in Egypt, three also offering secondary education. |
| 1873 | United Kingdom | Sarah Woodhead becomes the first woman to take and pass a Tripos examination. In particular, she is the first woman to take, and to pass, the Mathematical Tripos exam. |
| 1874 | United States | The first woman to graduate from the University of California, Rosa L. Scrivner, obtains a Ph.B. (Bachelor of Philosophy) in Agriculture. |
| 1874 | Iran | The first school for girls is founded by American missionaries (only non-Muslims attend until 1891). |
| 1874 | Japan | The profession of public school teacher is opened to women. |
| 1874 | Netherlands | Aletta Jacobs becomes the first woman allowed to study medicine. |
| 1874 | United Kingdom | London School of Medicine for Women is founded, becoming the first medical school in Britain to train women. |
| 1874 | Germany | Russian mathematician Sofya Kovalevskaya became the first woman to earn a doctorate (in the modern sense) in mathematics. |
| 1874 | Canada | Grace Annie Lockhart becomes the first woman in the British Empire to receive a bachelor's degree, graduating from Mount Allison University in Canada. |

### 1875–1899

| Year | Location | Milestone |
| 1875 | Switzerland | Stefania Wolicka, a Polish woman, becomes the first woman to earn a PhD from the University of Zurich. |
| 1875 | Denmark | Women are permitted to take the school leaving examination (studentereksamen) and study at the University of Copenhagen with certain restrictions. |
| 1875 | India | The first women are admitted to college courses, although with special permission (at Madras Medical College). |
| 1876 | Argentina | Girls are included in the national school system by the transference of control of private girls schools from the charitable Beneficent Society to the provincial government. |
| 1876 | Great Britain | Medical examining bodies are given the right to certify women. |
| 1876 | India | Women are allowed to attend university exams at the Calcutta University. |
| 1876 | Italy | Universities open to women. |
| 1876 | Netherlands | Universities open to women. |
| 1876 | United Kingdom | University College, Bristol (now the University of Bristol) opens as the first co-educational university college in England. |
| 1876 | United States | Elizabeth Bragg becomes the first female to graduate with an engineering degree in the U.S. (in civil engineering from the University of California, Berkeley). |
| 1876 | United States | Anna Oliver becomes the first woman to graduate from a Methodist seminary, receiving a Bachelor of Divinity from Boston University School of Theology |
| 1877 | United States | Helen Magill White becomes the first American woman to earn a Ph.D. (earned in Greek at Boston University). |
| 1877 | Chile | Universities open to women. |
| 1877 | New Zealand | Kate Edger becomes the first woman to graduate from a university in New Zealand. |
| 1878 | Austria-Hungary | Women are allowed to attend university lectures as guest auditors. |
| 1878 | Bulgaria | Elementary education is introduced for both genders. |
| 1878 | Russia | The Bestuzhev Courses open in Saint Petersburg. |
| 1878 | United States | Mary L. Page becomes the first American woman to earn a degree in architecture (at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign). |
| 1878 | United Kingdom | Lady Margaret Hall, the first college at the University of Oxford to admit women, is founded. |
| 1878 | United Kingdom | The University of London receives a supplemental charter allowing it to award degrees to women, the first university in the United Kingdom to open its degrees. |
| 1879 | United Kingdom | Royal Holloway College, a women-only college, is founded by the Victorian entrepreneur Thomas Holloway on the Mount Lee Estate in Egham. It later merged with Bedford College to become Royal Holloway, University of London. |
| 1879 | United States | Mary Eliza Mahoney becomes the first African-American in the U.S. to earn a diploma in nursing (from the School of Nursing at the New England Hospital for Women and Children in Boston). |
| 1879 | Brazil | Universities open to women. |
| 1879 | France | Colleges and secondary education open to women. |
| 1879 | India | The first college open to women: Bethune College (the first female graduate in 1883). |
| 1880 | United Kingdom | First four women gain BA degrees at the University of London, the first women in the UK to be awarded degrees. |
| 1880 | Australia | Universities open to women. |
| 1880 | Belgium | The University of Brussels is opened to women. |
| 1880 | France | Universities open to women. |
| 1880 | France | Free public secondary education to women. |
| 1880 | France | Public teachers training schools open to women. |
| 1881 | United Kingdom | Women are allowed to take the Cambridge Mathematical Tripos exams, following Charlotte Scott's unofficial ranking as eighth wrangler. |
| 1881 | United States | American Association of University Women is founded. |
| 1882 | United Kingdom | College Hall opens as a hall of residence for women students in London, primarily for students at University College London and the London School of Medicine for Women, becoming an official University of London student hall in 2010. |
| 1882 | France | Compulsory elementary education for both genders. |
| 1882 | Norway | Women allowed to study at the university. |
| 1882 | Nicaragua | The first public secular education institution for women, Colegio de Señoritas, opens. |
| 1882 | Poland | The Flying University provides academic education for women. |
| 1882 | Serbia | Compulsory education for both genders. |
| 1882 | Belgium | Universities open to women. |
| 1882 | India | Bombay University open to women. |
| 1882 | Romania | Universities open to women. |
| 1883 | Australia | Bella Guerin becomes the first woman to graduate from a university in Australia (from the University of Melbourne). |
| 1883 | Sweden | Ellen Fries, a historian, becomes the first Swedish woman to obtain her Ph.D. (from Uppsala University) |
| 1883 | United States | Susan Hayhurst becomes the first woman to receive a pharmacy degree in the United States (from the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia). |
| 1883 | United Kingdom | Sophie Bryant becomes the first woman in Britain to earn a D.Sc. (Doctor of Science). |
| 1885 | Sierra Leone | Adelaide Casely-Hayford becomes the first African woman to study music at the Stuttgart Conservatory. |
| 1886 | United States | Winifred Edgerton Merrill becomes the first American woman to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics (from Columbia University). |
| 1886 | United States | Anandibai Joshi from India, Kei Okami from Japan, and Sabat Islambouli from Syria become the first women from their respective countries (and in Joshi's case the first Hindu woman) to get a degree in western medicine (from the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania). |
| 1886 | France | Women become eligible to join public education boards. |
| 1886 | France | Iulia Hasdeu becomes the first Romanian woman to study at the Sorbonne. She enrolled at age 16 and died two years later while preparing her doctoral thesis. |
| 1886 | Costa Rica | A public academic educational institution open to women. |
| 1886 | Denmark | N. Zahle's School in Copenhagen is founded as a private school to prepare girls to take the school leaving certificate (studentereksamen). |
| 1886 | Korea | The first educational institution for women, Ewha Womans University, is founded. |
| 1886 | Mexico | Universities open to women. |
| 1887 | Albania | The first Albanian language elementary school is opened for girls. |
| 1889 | United States | Maria Louise Baldwin becomes the first African-American female principal in Massachusetts and the Northeast, supervising white faculty and a predominantly white student body at the Agassiz Grammar School in Cambridge. |
| 1889 | United States | Susan La Flesche Picotte becomes the first Native American woman to earn a medical degree (from Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania). |
| 1889 | Sweden | Women become eligible to join boards of public authority, such as public school boards. |
| 1889 | Sweden | First female professor: Sofya Kovalevskaya. |
| 1889 | Egypt | The first teacher training college for women. |
| 1889 | Argentina | Cecilia Grierson becomes the first woman in Argentina to earn a medical university degree. |
| 1889 | Palestine | The first school open to girls is founded by missionaries. |
| 1889 | United Kingdom | Scottish universities are opened to women under the Universities (Scotland) Act 1889. |
| 1889 | El Salvador | Antonia Navarro Huezo becomes the first Salvadoran woman to earn a topographic engineering doctorate. |
| 1890 | United States | Ida Gray becomes the first African-American woman to earn a Doctor of Dental Surgery degree {from the University of Michigan]. |
| 1890 | Finland | Signe Hornborg graduates as an architect from the Helsinki University of Technology in Finland, becoming the first ever formally qualified female architect in the world. |
| 1890 | Bohemia | The first secondary education school opens for girls in Prague. |
| 1890 | Greece | Universities open to women. |
| 1891 | Albania | The first school of higher education for women is opened. It was founded by siblings Sevasti and Gjerasim Qiriazi. |
| 1891 | Germany | Women are allowed to attend university lectures, making it possible for individual professors to accept female students if they wish. |
| 1891 | Greece | Sevasti Kallisperi graduates from The Sorbonne in Paris with a doctorate degree, making her the first Greek woman to earn a university degree. |
| 1891 | Portugal | The first medical university degree is granted to a woman. |
| 1891 | Switzerland | Secondary schools open to women. |
| 1891 | Ecuador | Juana Miranda, an obstetrician, becomes the Republic's first female university professor; she teaches at the Central University of Ecuador's medical school. |
| 1892 | United States | Laura Eisenhuth becomes the first woman elected to state office as Superintendent of Public Instruction. |
| 1893 | Ottoman Empire | Women are permitted to attend medical lectures at Istanbul University. |
| 1893 | France | Dorothea Klumpke becomes the first woman to be awarded a doctorate in sciences. |
| 1893 | United States | In 1893, the South Carolina General Assembly mandates "that women should be allowed to attend [ South Carolina College ] as special students". Two years later, the college's Board of Trustees makes the decision to allow female students into the school. |
| 1894 | Poland | Kraków University opens to women. |
| 1894 | United States | Margaret Floy Washburn becomes the first American woman to be officially awarded the Ph.D. degree in psychology, at Cornell University. |
| 1895 | Austria-Hungary | Universities open to women. |
| 1895 | Egypt | A public school system for girls is organized. |
| 1896 | Norway | Women are admitted to all secondary educational schools of the state. |
| 1896 | Spain | María Goyri de Menéndez Pidal becomes the first Spanish woman to earn a degree in philosophy and letters with a licentiate from the University of Madrid. |
| 1897 | Switzerland | Anita Augspurg becomes the first German woman to receive a Doctor of Law (from the University of Zurich), despite not being able to practice law in Germany until 1922. |
| 1897 | Austria-Hungary | Gabriele Possanner becomes the first woman to receive a medical degree and, subsequently, the country's first practicing female doctor. |
| 1898 | Haiti | The Medical University accepts female students in obstetrics. |
| 1898 | Serbia | Co-education, banned since the 1850s, is re-introduced, equalizing the schooling of men and women. |
| 1898 | United Kingdom | Margaret Murray becomes the first woman lecturer of archaeology in the United Kingdom. |
| 1899 | Germany | Women are admitted to study medicine, dentistry and pharmacy. |

## 20th century
### 1900–1924

| Year | Location | Milestone |
| 1900 | Egypt | A school for female teachers is founded in Cairo. |
| 1900 | United States | Otelia Cromwell becomes the first Black woman to graduate from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. |
| 1900 | Tunisia | The first public elementary school for girls. |
| 1900 | Japan | The first women's university. |
| 1900 | Baden, Germany | Universities open to women. |
| 1900 | Sri Lanka | Secondary education open to women. |
| 1901 | Bulgaria | Universities open to women. |
| 1901 | Cuba | Universities open to women. |
| 1902 | Australia | Ada Evans becomes the first woman to graduate in law at the University of Sydney. |
| 1903 | United States | Mignon Nicholson becomes the first woman in North America to earn a veterinary degree (from McKillip Veterinary College in Chicago, Illinois). |
| 1903 | Canada | Clara Benson and Emma Sophia Baker become the first women to earn a PhD from the University of Toronto. |
| 1903 | Denmark | Girls permitted to attend gymnasium high school. |
| 1903 | Norway | Clara Holst becomes the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in Norway (from Royal Frederick University) with a dissertation was titled Studier over middelnedertyske laaneord i dansk i det 14. og 15. aarhundrede (English: Study of Middle Low German loanwords in Danish in the 14th and 15th centuries). |
| 1904 | United States | Helen Keller graduates from Radcliffe, becoming the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. |
| 1904 | United Kingdom | Millicent Mackenzie is appointed as assistant professor of education at the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire (part of the University of Wales), the first female professor in the UK. |
| 1904 | Württemberg, Germany | Universities open to women. |
| 1905 | United States | Nora Stanton Blatch Barney, born in England, becomes one of the first women to earn a degree in any type of engineering in the United States (in civil engineering Cornell University). |
| 1905 | Argentina | University preparatory secondary education open to women. |
| 1905 | Iceland | Educational institutions open to women. |
| 1905 | Russia | Universities open to women. |
| 1905 | Serbia | Female university students are fully integrated in to the university system. |
| 1905 | Australia | Flos Greig became the first woman to be admitted as a barrister and solicitor in Australia, having graduated in 1903. |
| 1906 | Saxony, Germany | Universities open to women. |
| 1907 | China | Girls are included in the education system. |
| 1907 | Sudan | The first school open to Muslim girls. |
| 1907 | Japan | Tohoku University, the first (private) coeducational university. |
| 1907 | Italy | Rina Monti is named the first female university chair in the Kingdom of Italy. |
| 1907 | Iran | Compulsory primary education for girls. |
| 1907 | Iran | The first Iranian school for girls is established by Tuba Azmudeh, followed by others the following years. |
| 1908 | United States | Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, the first Black Greek letter organization for women, is founded at Howard University. |
| 1908 | United Kingdom | Edith Morley is appointed Professor of English Language at University College Reading, becoming the first full professor at a British university institute. |
| 1908 | Korea | Secondary education for girls through the foundation of the Capital School for Girl's Higher Education. |
| 1908 | Peru | Universities open to women. |
| 1908 | Prussia, Alsace-Lorraine and Hesse, Germany | Universities open to women. |
| 1908 | Switzerland | The Russian-born Anna Tumarkin becomes the first female professor in Europe with the right to examine doctoral and post-doctoral students. |
| 1909 | United States | Ella Flagg Young becomes the first female superintendent of a large city school system in the United States. |
| 1909 | Spain | María Goyri de Menéndez Pidal becomes the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in Spain, (in philosophy and letters from the University of Madrid). |
| 1910 | United Kingdom | Millicent Mackenzie is promoted to full professor, the first woman to reach this level at a fully chartered university in the UK. |
| 1911 | Luxembourg | A new educational law gives women access to higher education, and two secondary education schools open for girls. |
| 1912 | China | The Chinese government establishes secondary schools for young women. |
| 1912 | Costa Rica | Felícitas Chaverri Matamoros becomes the first female university student at the Pharmacy School; in 1917 she becomes the first Costa Rican female university graduate. |
| 1912 | Japan | Tsuruko Haraguchi becomes the first Japanese woman to earn a Ph.D. |
| 1912 | Canada | The first female professor is hired at a Canadian university. |
| 1913 | United Kingdom | Caroline Spurgeon successfully competes for the newly created chair of English Literature at Bedford College, London, becoming the second female professor in England. |
| 1914 | Sierra Leone | Kathleen Mary Easmon Simango is the first West African woman to become an Associate of the Royal College of Art. |
| 1915 | United States | Lillian Gilbreth becomes the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in industrial psychology (from Brown University with a dissertation titled "Some Aspects of Eliminating Waste in Teaching"). |
| 1917 | Greece | The first public secondary educational school for girls is opened. |
| 1917 | Iran | Public schools for girls are opened in order to enforce the law of compulsory education for girls in practice. |
| 1917 | Uruguay | Universities open to women. |
| 1917 | Nicaragua | The first woman obtains a university degree. |
| 1918 | Thailand | Universities open to women. |
| 1920 | Portugal | Secondary schools open to women. |
| 1920 | China | The first female students are accepted at Peking University, soon followed by universities all over China. |
| 1921 | United States | Sadie Tanner Mossell becomes the first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in the U.S. {in economics from the University of Pennsylvania). |
| 1921 | Thailand | Compulsory elementary education for both girls and boys. |
| 1922 | United States | Sigma Gamma Rho sorority is founded as the fourth Black Greek letter organization for women and the first Black sorority established on a predominantly White campus, Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana. |
| 1923 | United States | Virginia Proctor Powell Florence becomes the first Black woman in the United States to earn a degree in library science (with a Bachelor of Library Science from what is now part of the University of Pittsburgh). |
| 1923 | Canada | Elsie MacGill graduates from the University of Toronto in 1927, becoming the first Canadian woman to earn a degree in electrical engineering. |
| 1923 | Egypt | Compulsory education for both boys and girls. |
| 1923 | Australia | Winifred Kiek becomes the first woman to graduate with a bachelor of divinity from the Melbourne College of Divinity. |
| 1923 | Australia | Violet McKenzie becomes the first woman to gain a diploma in electrical engineering (from Sydney Technical College now known as TAFE New South Wales Sydney Institute). |
| 1924 | Russia | Olga Freidenberg becomes the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in classical philology (from Petrograd University). |

### 1925-1949

| Year | Location | Milestone |
| 1925 | Korea | Professional school for women (at Ewha Womans University). |
| 1926 | United States | May Edward Chinn becomes the first African-American woman to graduate from the University and Bellevue Hospital Medical College. |
| 1927 | Afghanistan | The monarch introduces compulsory education for the daughters of officials. |
| 1928 | Afghanistan | The first women are sent abroad to study (but are banned from studying abroad in 1929). |
| 1928 | Bahrain | The first public primary school for girls. |
| 1928 | Egypt | The first women students are admitted to Cairo University. |
| 1928 | Ghana | Jane E. Clerk is one of two students in the first batch at Presbyterian Women's Training College. |
| 1929 | Greece | Secondary education for girls is made equal to that for boys. |
| 1929 | Nigeria | Agnes Yewande Savage becomes the first West African woman to graduate from medical school, obtaining her degree at the University of Edinburgh. |
| 1929 | United States | Jenny Rosenthal Bramley, born in Moscow, becomes the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in physics in the United States (from New York University). |
| 1929 | United States | Elsie MacGill, from Canada, becomes the first woman in North America, and probably worldwide, to be awarded a master's degree in aeronautical engineering. |
| 1930 | Turkey | Equal right to university education for both men and women. |
| 1930 | Australia | Physician and zoologist Claire Weekes becomes the first woman to gain a doctorate of science at the University of Sydney. |
| 1931 | United States | Jane Matilda Bolin becomes the first Black woman to graduate from Yale Law School. |
| 1931 | United States | Bradford Academy, in Bradford, Massachusetts, changes its name to Bradford Junior College and offers a two-year degree for women. |
| 1932 | United States | Dorothy B. Porter becomes the first African-American woman to earn an advanced degree in library science (MLS) from Columbia University. |
| 1933 | Sierra Leone | Edna Elliott-Horton becomes the first West African woman to receive a baccalaureate degree in the liberal arts on graduating from Howard University. |
| 1933 | United States | Inez Beverly Prosser becomes the first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in psychology (from the University of Cincinnati). |
| 1934 | United States | Ruth Winifred Howard becomes the second African-American woman in the United States to receive a Ph.D. in psychology (from the University of Minnesota). |
| 1935 | Iran | Women are admitted to Tehran University. |
| 1935 | United States | Jesse Jarue Mark becomes the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in botany (from Iowa State University). |
| 1936 | United States | Flemmie Kittrell becomes the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in nutrition (from Cornell University). |
| 1937 | Kuwait | The first public schools open to girls. |
| 1937 | United States | Anna Johnson Julian becomes the first Black woman to receive a Ph.D. in sociology (from the University of Pennsylvania). |
| 1938 | Nigeria | Elizabeth Abimbola Awoliyi becomes the first woman to be licensed to practice medicine in Nigeria after graduating from Trinity College Dublin and the first West African female medical officer with a license of the Royal Surgeon (Dublin). |
| 1939 | United Kingdom | Dorothy Garrod becomes the Disney Professor of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge, making her the first female professor at either Oxford or Cambridge. |
| 1940 | United States | Roger Arliner Young becomes the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. in zoology (from the University of Pennsylvania). |
| 1941 | United States | Ruth Lloyd becomes the first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in anatomy (from Western Reserve University). |
| 1941 | United States | Merze Tate becomes the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in government and international relations (from Harvard University). |
| 1942 | United States | Margurite Thomas becomes the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in geology (from Catholic University). |
| 1943 | Iran | Compulsory primary education for both males and females. |
| 1943 | United States | Euphemia Haynes becomes the first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics (from Catholic University). |
| 1945 | United States | Zora Neale Hurston becomes the first African-American woman to be admitted to Barnard College. |
| 1945 | United States | Harvard Medical School admits women for the first time. |
| 1946 | Ghana | Jane E. Clerk is among a batch of pioneer women educators in West Africa selected to study at the Institute of Education of the University of London. |
| 1947 | Ghana | Susan Ofori-Atta becomes the first Ghanaian woman to earn a medical degree on graduating from the University of Edinburgh. |
| 1947 | United States | Marie Maynard Daly becomes the first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry (from Columbia University). |
| 1947 | United Kingdom | Cambridge University becomes the last university in the UK to allow women to take full degrees. |
| 1948 | United Kingdom | Elizabeth Hill becomes the first Professor of Slavonic studies at the University of Cambridge. |
| 1949 | United States | Joanne Simpson (formerly Joanne Malkus, born Joanne Gerould) becomes the first woman in the United States to receive a Ph.D. in meteorology (from the University of Chicago). |

### 1950-1974

| Year | Location | Milestone |
| 1950 | Ghana | Matilda J. Clerk becomes the first woman in Ghana and West Africa to attend graduate school, earning a postgraduate diploma at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. |
| 1950 | Ghana | Annie Jiagge, the first woman in the Commonwealth of Nations to become a judge, is called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn. |
| 1951 | Bahrain | First secondary education school open to girls. |
| 1951 | Ghana | Esther Afua Ocloo becomes the first person of African ancestry to obtain a cooking diploma from the Good Housekeeping Institute in London and to take the post-graduate Food Preservation Course at Long Ashton Research Station, Department of Horticulture, Bristol University. |
| 1951 | United States | Maryly Van Leer Peck, becomes the first female chemical engineering graduate, receiving an M.S. and later a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Florida. |
| 1952 | United States | Georgia Tech's president Blake R. Van Leer admits the first women to the school and his wife Ella Wall Van Leer sets up support groups for future female engineers. |
| 1955 | Qatar | First public school for girls. |
| 1957 | Southern Rhodesia (today Zimbabwe) | Sarah Chavunduka becomes the first black woman to attend the University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (today the University of Zimbabwe). |
| 1959 | United States | Lois Graham becomes the first American woman to earn a PhD in mechanical engineering. |
| 1962 | United States | Martha E. Bernal, born in Texas, becomes the first Latina to earn a Ph.D. in psychology (clinical psychology from Indiana University Bloomington). |
| 1962 | Kuwait | The right to education is secured for all citizens regardless of gender. |
| 1963 | Nigeria | Grace Alele-Williams becomes the first Nigerian woman to earn a doctorate when she earned her Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from the University of Chicago. |
| 1963 | Gambia | Florence Mahoney becomes the first Gambian woman to obtain a Ph.D., graduating from the School of Oriental and African Studies with a doctorate in history. |
| 1963 | Australia | Mary Lockett becomes the first woman appointed as a professor at the University of Western Australia when she was appointed Wellcome Foundation research professor of pharmacology. |
| 1964 | Afghanistan | The 1964 constitution states the equal right of women to education. |
| 1964 | Democratic Republic of the Congo | Sophie Kanza became the first Congolese woman to graduate from a university when she received her diploma from the University of Geneva with a degree in sociology. |
| 1965 | United States | Sister Mary Kenneth Keller becomes the first American woman to earn a Ph.D. in Computer Science (from the University of Wisconsin–Madison with a thesis titled "Inductive Inference on Computer-Generated Patterns". |
| 1965 | Kuwait | Compulsory education for both boys and girls. |
| 1966 | Kuwait | University education open to women. |
| 1969 | United States | Lillian Lincoln Lambert becomes the first African-American woman to graduate from Harvard Business School with an MBA. |
| 1969 | United States | Princeton, Yale, Trinity, and Kenyon open applications to women. |
| 1970 | United States | Williams, Colgate University, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Virginia allow women to apply for admittance. |
| 1971 | United States | Bradford Junior College in Bradford, Massachusetts changes its name to Bradford College and offers four-year degrees for women starting in 1972. |
| 1971 | United States | Bowdoin, Brown, and Lehigh allows women to apply for admittance. |
| 1971 | Egypt | The new constitution confirms women's right to education. |
| 1972 | United States | Title IX is passed, making discrimination against any person based on their sex in any federally funded educational program(s) in America illegal. |
| 1972 | United States | Willie Hobbs Moore becomes the first African-American woman to receive a Ph.D. in physics (from the University of Michigan). |
| 1972 | United States | Bradford College in Bradford, Massachusetts becomes a co-educational institution (again) after being founded in 1803 as co-educational and then serving exclusively as a female institution of higher learning from 1837 to 1972. Bradford College closed permanently in May, 2000. The Bradford Alumni Association continues today and is the third oldest continuing alumni association in the United States. |
| 1972 | United States | Dartmouth, Davidson, Duke, and College of the Holy Cross allows women to apply for admittance. |

### 1975-1999

| Year | Location | Milestone |
| 1974 | Pakistan | One of the earliest and largest open universities, Allama Iqbal Open University started providing distance education, making it accessible for women who couldn't attend traditional schooling due to societal or logistical barriers. |
| 1975 | United States | Lorene L. Rogers becomes the first woman named president of a major research university in the United States, the University of Texas. |
| 1975 | United States | On July 1, 1975, Jeanne Sinkford becomes the first female dean of a dental school as dean of Howard University, School of Dentistry. |
| 1975 | United States | Amherst, Claremont, US Naval Academy, West Point, US Airforce Academy and US Coast Guard Academy allows women to apply for admittance. |
| 1975 | United Kingdom | The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 (c. 65) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that protects women from discrimination on the grounds of sex or marital status. The Act covers education among other things. |
| 1976-1985 | International | In 1975, the United Nations declared 1976-1985 the Decade for Women, which profoundly impacted raising awareness about gender inequalities, including those in education. The period witnessed international conferences focusing on women, the first of which was in Mexico City in 1975, the second in Copenhagen in 1980, and the third in Nairobi in 1985. |
| 1976 | United States | U.S. service academies (US Military Academy, US Naval Academy, US Air Force Academy and the US Coast Guard Academy) admit women. |
| 1977 | United States | Harvard's ratio of four men to one woman ends with "sex-blind admissions". |
| 1977 | United States | The American Association of Dental Schools (founded in 1923 and renamed the American Dental Education Association in 2000) appoints Nancy Goorey as its first female president. |
| 1977 | United Kingdom | Women are first allowed to apply for Rhodes Scholarships. |
| 1978 | Afghanistan | Mandatory literacy and education of all women. |
| 1979 | United States | Christine Economides becomes the first American woman to receive a Ph.D. in petroleum engineering (from Stanford University). |
| 1979 | United States | Jenny Patrick becomes the first Black woman in the United States to receive a Ph.D. in chemical engineering (from Massachusetts Institute of Technology). |
| 1980 | United States | Women and men are enrolled in American colleges in equal numbers for the first time. |
| 1982 | United States | The number of bachelor's degrees conferred on women surpasses those conferred on men. |
| 1982 | United States | Mississippi University for Women v. Hogan, 458 U.S. 718 (1982) is a case decided 5–4 by the Supreme Court of the United States which holds that the single-sex admissions policy of the Mississippi University for Women violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. |
| 1982 | United States | Judith Hauptman becomes the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in Talmud (from the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York). |
| 1983 | United States | Christine Darden becomes the first black woman in the U.S. to receive a Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering (from George Washington University). |
| 1983 | United States | Columbia College of Columbia University allows women to apply for admittance. |
| 1984 | United States | The U.S. Supreme Court's 1984 ruling Grove City College v. Bell holds that Title IX applies only to those programs receiving direct federal aid. The case reaches the Supreme Court when Grove City College disagreed with the Department of Education's assertion that it was required to comply with Title IX. Grove City College was not a federally funded institution; however, they did accept students who were receiving Basic Educational Opportunity Grants through a Department of Education program. The Department of Education's stance was that, because some of its students were receiving federal grants, the school was receiving federal assistance and Title IX applied to it. The Court decided that since Grove City College was only receiving federal funding through the grant program, only that program had to be in compliance. The ruling was a major victory for those opposed to Title IX, as it made many institutions' sports programs outside of the rule of Title IX and, thus, reduced the scope of Title IX. |
| 1986 | Zimbabwe | To combat gender disparities in higher education, the University of Zimbabwe introduced a quota system to ensure a higher enrollment of women in its programs. |
| 1987 | United States | Johnnetta Cole becomes the first Black president of Spelman College. |
| 1988 | United States | The Civil Rights Restoration Act is passed, extending Title IX coverage to all programs of any educational institution that receives any federal assistance, both direct and indirect. |
| 1988 | Pakistan | Benazir Bhutto became the first woman to lead a Muslim-majority country as Prime Minister. She had been educated at both Oxford and Harvard, and her leadership set a significant precedent in the Muslim world. |
| 1992 | Guatemala | Indigenous K'iche' woman Rigoberta Menchú received the Nobel Peace Prize for her work in social justice and ethno-cultural reconciliation based on respect for the rights of indigenous peoples. Her prominence also highlighted the importance of education and advocacy. |
| 1994 | United States | The Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act, sponsored by Congresswoman Cardiss Collins, requires federally assisted higher education institutions to disclose information on roster sizes for men's and women's teams, as well as budgets for recruiting, scholarships, coaches' salaries, and other expenses, annually. |
| 1995 | China | At the Fourth World Conference on Women of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, governments globally committed to a detailed action plan. It highlighted the importance of ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education for women and girls. |
| 1996 | United States | United States v. Virginia, 518 U.S. 515 (1996), is a landmark case in which the Supreme Court of the United States strikes down the Virginia Military Institute (VMI)'s long-standing male-only admission policy in a 7–1 decision. (Justice Clarence Thomas, whose son was enrolled at VMI at the time, recused himself.) |

## 21st century

| Year | Location | Milestone |
| 2001 | United States | Ruth Simmons becomes the eighteenth president of Brown University, making her the first Black woman to lead an Ivy League institution. |
| 2002 | Afghanistan | Following the ousting of the Taliban regime in 2001 by U.S.-led forces, girls' school attendance in Afghanistan increased significantly. By 2018, over 3.6 million girls were enrolled in schools, marking a substantial rise from previous years, especially in secondary education. |
| 2002 | India | India launched the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) in 2001 as a government program to achieve Universalisation of Elementary Education. This program was particularly notable for its focus on the education of girls and children with special needs. The SSA aimed to provide quality elementary education, including life skills and computer education, to about 193 million children across 1.1 million habitations. |
| 2004 | Rwanda | Rwanda made significant strides in achieving gender parity in education after the 1994 genocide. The government established the Girls' Education Task Force in 2004 to promote education for young girls. Several policies were introduced to continue gender equality in education, such as the Girls Education Policy (2008), the National Education Policy (2010), and the University of Rwanda Gender Policy (2016). These policies dedicated 50% of student university positions to women and addressed the socio-economic barriers hindering girls' education. Rwanda's success in promoting girls' education is evident in the fact that it currently boasts the highest participation rates in East Africa and has achieved gender parity in net and gross enrollment at pre-primary, primary, and secondary levels. |
| 2005 | Saudi Arabia | Saudi Arabia witnessed a significant transformation in higher education for women after 2005, particularly under the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Scholarship program introduced by King Abdullah. This program was designed to strengthen Saudi academic institutions and broaden their research and course offerings. It marked a notable shift in the country's approach to female education, with an increase in female graduates leading to incremental improvements in the number of women entering top jobs and earning salaries on par with their male colleagues. This change was part of a broader effort to diversify the Saudi economy and embrace high-tech, creative, and specialized industries under the Kingdom's Vision 2030 reform agenda. The reforms not only enhanced educational opportunities for women but also aimed to align students' qualifications with the job market in Saudi Arabia, thereby raising overall efficiency and developing managerial techniques. |
| 2006 | United States | For the first time, more doctoral degrees are conferred on women than men in the United States. This educational gap has continued to increase in the U.S., especially for master's degrees where over 50% more degrees are conferred on women than men. |
| 2006 | United States | On November 24, 2006, the Title IX regulations are amended to provide greater flexibility in the operation of single-sex classes or extracurricular activities at the primary or secondary school level. |
| 2007 | South Africa | The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls is established in South Africa, aimed at providing educational and leadership opportunities for disadvantaged girls. |
| 2010 | Kenya | Kenya's introduction of free primary education in 2003 led to a significant increase in school enrollment rates, achieving over 90% primary enrollment by 2010 and attaining gender parity in primary schools. However, despite this progress, disparities remained at the regional level, with enrollment being much lower in areas with high poverty levels. In some regions, only 19% of girls were enrolled in school. The policy was particularly effective in reducing the educational gender gap and increasing the overall number of students in primary education, including girls |
| 2011 | India | In April 2011, the Institute for Buddhist Dialectical Studies (IBD) in Dharamsala, India, confers the degree of geshe (a Tibetan Buddhist academic degree for monks and nuns) to Venerable Kelsang Wangmo, a German nun, thus making her the world's first female geshe. |
| 2013 | Saudi Arabia | The Saudi government sanctions sports for girls in private schools for the first time. |
| 2013 | Saudi Arabia | Mai Majed Al-Qurashi becomes the first woman to receive a PhD in Saudi Arabia (from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology). |
| 2013 | United Kingdom | It is announced that Ephraim Mirvis has created the job of ma'ayan by which women would be advisers on Jewish law in the area of family purity and as adult educators in Orthodox synagogues. This requires a part-time training course for 18 months, the first such course in the United Kingdom. |
| 2013 | Tibet | Tibetan women are able to take the geshe exams for the first time. |
| 2014 | Nigeria | On the night of April 14–15, 2014, 276 female students aged 16 to 18 were kidnapped by the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State, Nigeria. This incident drew global attention and led to the launch of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign. The kidnapping highlighted the risks faced by girls pursuing education in conflict areas and the extreme measures taken by Boko Haram against western-style modern education. Despite efforts, many of the kidnapped girls remained missing years after the incident, underscoring the ongoing challenges in the region. The campaign for their release and the international attention it garnered underscored the widespread condemnation of Boko Haram's actions and the global concern for the safety and education of girls in conflict zones. |
| 2015 | Global | The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, launched in 2015, included SDG 4 which specifically focuses on ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education for all. One of the main targets of SDG 4 is to eliminate gender disparities in education and to ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for vulnerable groups, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples, and children in vulnerable situations. The goal emphasizes the importance of achieving literacy and numeracy for all youth and a significant proportion of adults, both men and women, by 2030. SDG 4 also highlights the need to increase the supply of qualified teachers and to improve infrastructure and facilities for effective learning environments, particularly in Least Developed Countries (LDCs). Despite progress, challenges such as a high number of out-of-school children and adolescents, as well as disparities in educational access and quality, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia, continue to persist. |
| 2016 | Tibet | Twenty Tibetan Buddhist nuns become the first Tibetan women to receive geshema degrees. |
| 2018 | California | In 1998 Deep Springs College accepted a $1.8 million low-interest loan under the condition that it would begin admitting women by 2019. In 2011, the college's trustees voted to begin accepting female students in the summer of 2013 but became embroiled in legal challenges which were lodged against the trustees' action. The challengers disputed the authority of the college's board to change the admissions policy and included an injunction preventing the college from accepting female students until at least the 2018–2019 academic year. On April 13, 2017, the California Court of Appeal ruled that the college could admit women in Hitz v. Hoekstra. With the Supreme Court of California declining to hear an appeal, the board of trustees voted once again to admit women, with the first female students arriving in July 2018. |
| 2020 | Global | The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on girls' education worldwide in 2020 was profound and multi-faceted. UNESCO estimated that 11 million girls might not return to school following the pandemic, with girls aged 12-17 being particularly at risk of dropping out in low and lower-income countries. The challenges were especially acute for girls from low-income households and those in rural areas. The pandemic exacerbated existing inequalities and introduced new threats to girls' education, including increased risks of child marriage, early pregnancy, and gender-based violence. Many girls were married off as a result of the economic pressures of the pandemic on families, leading to increased teenage pregnancies and a rise in rape cases, often resulting in unwanted pregnancies and school dropouts. The pandemic also highlighted the need for greater investment in education and security for girls as resources for the future of the world. |
| 2022 | Afghanistan | In March 2022, the Taliban abruptly reversed their plans to allow girls to resume their secondary school education (defined as grade seven and upwards in Afghanistan). With the exception of the current cohort of university students, this decision leaves graduating from sixth grade as the highest level of educational attainment possible for Afghan women. Secondary schools for boys reopened on schedule. |