Womens Equality Day 2015 - August 26, 2015

Celebrate Equality Day – August 26th is the anniversary of national woman suffrage. Across the seventy-two years between the first major women’s rights conference at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848, and the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, thousands of people participated in marches through cities like New York and Washington DC, wrote editorials and pamphlets, gave speeches all over the nation, lobbied political organizations, and held demonstrations with the goal of achieving voting rights for women. Women also picketed the White House with questions like, “Mr. President, what are you going to do about woman’s suffrage?” “Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty?” This was the first time in history that a group of  women picketed the White House. For more info go to: https://www.nwhm.org/blog/celebrate-equality-day/


Women's Suffrage Timeline


One of my favorite videos on this issue, catchy and helps folks to remember the importance of Womens Suffrage and their fight for voting rights and equality.



A Story of Horror in the History of the United States of America. We must never forget our history so we may never repeat it. http://scottsborostories.blogspot.com/2010/11/93-years-ago-night-of-terror-nov-15.html

Womens Equality Day, August 26, 2014

Celebrate Equality Day

Online exhibits of the National Womens History Museum:  https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/

Women's Equality Day - August 26, 2013

2013 Department of Defense poster,

courtesy of the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute (DEOMI)

               

"August 26th is the anniversary of national woman suffrage.  Across the seventy-two years between the first major women’s rights conference at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848, and the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, thousands of people participated in marches through cities like New York and Washington DC, wrote editorials and pamphlets, gave speeches all over the nation, lobbied political organizations, and held demonstrations with the goal of achieving voting rights for women.  Women also picketed the White House with questions like, “Mr. President, what are you going to do about woman’s suffrage?” “Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty?”  This was the first time in history that a group of people picketed the White House." http://www.nwhm.org/blog/celebrate-equality-day/ 

 

Each time a girl opens a book and reads a womanless history,
she learns she is worth less.

– Myra Pollack Sadker

History helps us learn who we are, but when we don’t know our own history, our power and dreams are immediately diminished.

Multicultural American women are overlooked in most mainstream approaches to U.S. history, so the National Women’s History Project champions their accomplishments and leads the drive to write women back into history. http://www.nwhp.org/aboutnwhp/index.php

The Attacks Against Women Continue

WOMEN'S RIGHTS UNDER ATTACK
How can a criminal assert rights to that which was a result of a criminal act? That is like saying a thief has the rights to the items he stole. This is a horror story today, a day which is Womens  Equality Day. This is a story of the misapplication of law in a society which actively discriminates against women and the Republican Party wages a "WAR ON WOMEN." http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/22/opinion/prewitt-rapist-visitation-rights/index.html

THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST WOMEN NewYork Times Report

• ABORTION On Thursday, a House subcommittee denied the District of Columbia’s Democratic delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, a chance to testify at a hearing called to promote a proposed federal ban on nearly all abortions in the District 20 weeks after fertilization. The bill flouts the Roe v. Wade standard of fetal viability.  

• ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE Governor Brewer also recently signed a bill eliminating public funding for Planned Parenthood. Arizona law already barred spending public money on abortions, which are in any case a small part of the services that Planned Parenthood provides. The new bill denies the organization public money for nonabortion services, like cancer screening and family planning, often the only services of that kind available to poor women.  

• EQUAL PAY Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, the epicenter of all kinds of punitive and regressive legislation, signed the repeal of a 2009 law that allowed women and others to bring lawsuits in state courts against pay discrimination, instead of requiring them to be heard as slower and more costly federal cases. It also stiffened penalties for employers found guilty of discrimination.   

• DOMESTIC VIOLENCE Last month, the Senate approved a reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, designed to protect victims of domestic and sexual abuse and bring their abusers to justice. The disappointing House bill omits new protections for gay, Indian, student and immigrant abuse victims that are contained in the bipartisan Senate bill. It also rolls back protections for immigrant women whose status is dependent on a spouse, making it more likely that they will stay with their abusers, at real personal risk, and ends existing protections for undocumented immigrants who report abuse and cooperate with law enforcement to pursue the abuser. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/opinion/sunday/the-attack-on-women-is-real.html

Republican politicians attempt to intrude into womens lives. 

• "Republican politicians seem to want to redefine rape and classify it into categories, which are simply not going to sound very well to rape victims and most women in the U.S."  http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/War-on-women-and-the-self-by-Gregory-Patin-120822-771.html
•   Rep. Todd Akin's ignorance is hardly unique: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/08/26/4757972/leonard-pitts-jr-akins-ignorance.html 
• Reproductive Health Laws Prove GOP 'War on Women' Is No Fiction: http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/is-there-a-republican-war-on-women/reproductive-health-laws-prove-gop-war-on-women-is-no-fiction

Womens Equality Day, August 26, 2012

Women’s Equality Day commemorates the day when women in America were given full voting rights
under the U.S. Constitution by the passage of the 19th Amendment.
http://www.deomi.org/downloadableFiles/Womens_Equality_Day_2012_Smith.pdf

Women's Suffrage A "rock & roll "video telling a story about Womens suffrage. Set to "Bad Romance" by Lady GaGa.



August 26th is the anniversary of national woman suffrage. Across the seventy-two years between the first major women’s rights conference at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848, and the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, thousands of people participated in marches through cities like New York and Washington DC, wrote editorials and pamphlets, gave speeches all over the nation, lobbied political organizations, and held demonstrations with the goal of achieving voting rights for women. Women also picketed the White House with questions like, “Mr. President, what are you going to do about woman’s suffrage?” “Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty?” This was the first time in history that a group of people picketed the White House.

The woman suffrage amendment was introduced for the first time to the United States Congress on January 10, 1878. It was re-submitted numerous times until finally in June 1919 the amendment received approval from both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Over the following year the suffragists spent their time lobbying states in order to have the amendment ratified by the required two-thirds of the states. On August 24th, Tennessee, the final state needed for ratification, narrowly signed the approval by one vote. The vote belonged to Harry Burn, who heeded the words of his mother when she urged him to vote yes on suffrage. The U.S. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby signed the amendment into law on August 26, 1920.

Fifty years later on August 26th, 1970, Betty Friedan and the National Organization of Women (NOW) organized a nationwide Women’s Strike for Equality. Women across the political spectrum joined together to demand equal opportunities in employment, education, and twenty-four hour child-care centers. This was the largest protest for gender equality in U.S. history. There were demonstrations and rallies in more than ninety major cities and small towns across the country and over 100,000 women participated, including 50,000 who marched down Fifth Avenue in New York City.

Several other acts occurred on that day to help the cause and prompt more press coverage on the women’s movement. For example, women in New York City took over the Statue of Liberty. In preparation, several women climbed up to measure the wind velocity. Later they returned to the Statue with two forty-foot banners to hang from the crown. One read: “March on August 26 for Equality.” The other: “Women of the World Unite.” An organized group stopped the ticker tape at the American Stock Exchange, and they held signs with slogans like, “We won’t bear any more bull.” Another action taken during the day was a lawsuit filed against the New York City Board of Education to gain equality for women in educational administration. The case lasted about ten years and finally resulted in a larger increase in female principals.

While the strike did not halt the activities of the nation, it drew national attention to the women’s rights movement. For example, The New York Times published their first major article on the feminist movement by covering the events of the day. It even included a map of the route the marchers took through New York City.

The following year in 1971, Representative Bella Abzug (D-NY) introduced a bill designating August 26th of each year as Women’s Equality Day and the bill passed. Part of the bill reads that Women’s Equality Day is a symbol of women’s continued fight for equal rights and that the United States commends and supports them. It decreed that the President is authorized and requested to issue a proclamation annually in commemoration of woman suffrage and the 1970 Strike for Equality. Women today continue to draw on the history of these brave and determined women.
Find Equality Day resources on the National Women’s History Project’s Web site

"BRIDGES" Womens Equality Day Poster Released

Department of Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute has released the 2011 Womens Equality Day Poster.

From the National Womens History Project: http://www.nwhp.org/aboutnwhp/index.php

What is Women’s Equality Day?  http://www.nwhp.org/resourcecenter/equalityday.php


"At the behest of Rep. Bella Abzug (D-NY), in 1971 the U.S. Congress designated August 26 as “Women’s Equality Day.”"

"The date was selected to commemorate the 1920 passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote. This was the culmination of a massive, peaceful civil rights movement by women that had its formal beginnings in 1848 at the world’s first women’s rights convention, in Seneca Falls, New York."

Joint Resolution of Congress, 1971

Designating August 26 of each year as Women’s Equality Day

WHEREAS, the women of the United States have been treated as second-class citizens and have not been entitled the full rights and privileges, public or private, legal or institutional, which are available to male citizens of the United States; and

WHEREAS, the women of the United States have united to assure that these rights and privileges are available to all citizens equally regardless of sex; and

WHEREAS, the women of the United States have designated August 26, the anniversary date of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, as symbol of the continued fight for equal rights: and

WHEREAS, the women of United States are to be commended and supported in their organizations and activities,

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that August 26th of each year is designated as Women’s Equality Day, and the President is authorized and requested to issue a proclamation annually in commemoration of that day in 1920, on which the women of America were first given the right to vote, and that day in 1970, on which a nationwide demonstration for women’s rights took place.