Nancy Pelosi, Anna Eshoo, Barbara Lee">Anna_Eshoo.html" ;"title="Nancy Pelosi, Anna Eshoo">Nancy Pelosi, Anna Eshoo, Barbara Lee and Jackie Speier on the 96th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, when women won the right to vote. Women's Equality Day is celebrated in the United States on August 26 to commemorate the 1920 adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment (Amendment XIX) to the

United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, on March 4, 1789. Originally includi ...

, which prohibits the states and the federal government from denying the

right to vote Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise is the right to vote in representative democracy, public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in ...

to citizens of the United States on the basis of sex. It was first celebrated in 1971, designated by Congress in 1973, and is proclaimed each year by the United States President.

History

The date was chosen to commemorate the day in 1920 when the Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby signed the proclamation granting American women the constitutional right to vote.

1970s

In 1971, following the 1970 nationwide Women's Strike for Equality, and again in 1973, as the battles over the

Equal Rights Amendment The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was a proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States, United States Constitution that would explicitly prohibit sex discrimination. It is not currently a part of the Constitution, though its Ratifi ...

continued, Congresswoman Bella Abzug of New York introduced a resolution to designate August 26 as Women's Equality Day. In 1972, President

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...

issued Proclamation 4147, which designated August 26, 1972, as "Women's Rights Day" and was the first official proclamation of Women's Equality Day. On August 16, 1973, Congress approved H.J. Res. 52, which stated that August 26 would be designated as Women's Equality Day and that "the President is authorized and requested to issue a proclamation in commemoration of that day in 1920 on which the women in America were first guaranteed the right to vote". The same day, President Nixon issued Proclamation 4236 for Women's Equality Day, which began, in part: "The struggle for women's suffrage, however, was only the first step toward full and equal participation of women in our Nation's life. In recent years, we have made other giant strides by attacking sex discrimination through our laws and by paving new avenues to equal economic opportunity for women. Today, in virtually every sector of our society, women are making important contributions to the quality of American life. And yet, much still remains to be done".

1980s

In 1981, 21 women wore white and chained themselves to the White House to call for the ratification of the

2020s

, every president since Richard Nixon has issued a proclamation each year designating August 26 as Women's Equality Day. Go Topless Day, an annual event started in 2007, is scheduled for the Sunday nearest Women's Equality Day, because of "Sylvie Chabot's remark that August 26 is Women's Equality Day in the US because it is on August 26, 1920 that women won their constitutional right to vote." The event encourages women to go topless in public, and men to cover their chests by wearing

brassiere A bra, short for brassiere or brassière (, ; ), is a type of form-fitting underwear that is primarily used to support and cover a woman's breasts. A typical bra consists of a chest band that wraps around the torso, supporting two breast cu ...

s or

bikini A bikini is a two-piece swimsuit primarily worn by women that features one piece on top that covers the breasts, and a second piece on the bottom: the front covering the pelvis but usually exposing the navel, and the back generally covering ...

References

External links

Presidential Proclamations of Women's Equality Day by decade

* 1970s
1972 (called Women's Rights Day)19731974197519761977197819791980
* 1980s
1981198219831984198519861987198819891990
* 1990s
199119921993199419951996199719992000
* 2000s
200420092010
* 2010s
201120122013201420152016

201820192020
* 2020s
2021202220232024

19th Amendment

National Archives – 19th Amendment
{{Suffrage August observances Observances in the United States Second-wave feminism in the United States Women in the United States 1973 establishments in the United States Recurring events established in 1973