In 2010, the average age of for a woman to get married was 26. Back in 1920, the year the 19th Amendment was ratified, the average bride was just 21 years old.
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2. Women were having children at a much younger age, too.
Even in the 1950s, the average age for the birth of a woman's first child was just 22.
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3. Oral contraception didn't exist.
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4. Plan B couldn't be a woman's "Plan B".
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5. She could get fired for being pregnant.
Working women could have their careers cut short if they became pregnant until the passage of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, which outlawed the practice.
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6. She couldn't sue for sexual harassment.
Courts didn't recognize sexual harassment in the workplace until 1977. That maybe because defining sexual harassment was still murky until 1980, when the term was officially defined by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
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7. She would face difficulty getting a credit card.
Unmarried women faced serious blocks getting credit, with banks being allowed to deny their application solely for their marital state up to the 1970s. Married woman could typically only get a credit card if her husband was willing to co-sign. There weren't legal measures put in place to eliminate this practice until 1974, with the Equal Credit Opportunity Act.
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8. Marital rape wasn't criminalized.
Rape within the confines of marriage wasn't recognized as a crime in all 50 states until 1993. Meaning, a women basically couldn't refuse sex to her husband or legally fight back if he raped her.
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9. Women couldn't get an Ivy League education—with a few exceptions.
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10. There were no women in the military.
In 1948, Congress passed the Women's Armed Services Integration Act, which allowed women to serve in the military and earn veterans benefits, that women became a significant military presence (in areas besides traditionally female roles, such as nursing, where they had been making a difference for many years prior).
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11. Legal abortions didn't exist.
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12. Serious discrimination ran rampant in the workplace.
Lack of pay, sexual harassment, and in some professions, restrictions on clothing and even her weight.
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13. In many states, women couldn't serve on juries.
Women in many states couldn't serve on a jury until 1973, when female jurors were permitted in the courtroom throughout the country.
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14. They didn't have the right to vote.Ironically, however, women could hold public office—the first female member of Congress was elected in 1917—but she couldn't even vote for herself to earn the position.
Saudi Arabia's women vote in election for first time (2016)-
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35075702
http://www.marieclaire.com/politics/news/a10569/things-women-couldnt-do-1920/
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