Today Is Women’s Equality Day

Today marks the 45th anniversary of Women’s Equality Day, commemorating the anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment on August 26th, 1920.

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Today marks the 96th anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment when women were finally granted the right to vote. It was a long slog from the first time the amendment was introduced, way back in 1878, barely a decade after the Civil War ended, after Minor v. Happersett handed down the unanimous decision that the 14th amendment, which gave black men the right to vote, did not extend the same to women of any color. The bill introduced in 1878 sat “in committee” until 1887, when it was brought up and swiftly rejected.

It wasn’t until the turn of the century that more movement occurred on the bill, as state level successes tied to the rise of the Progressive Party showed there was backing for the bill. It came back to congress in 1914, but was then rejected. It wasn’t until the National American Woman Suffrage Association made the radical (and very controversial) decision to support the US entry into “The Great War” in Europe that they began to get the necessary propaganda on their side to turn the tide. Tying women’s suffrage to nationalism was ultimately a savvy move, one that got President Woodrow Wilson to speak out in favor of the amendment in 1918.

It was still a hard push, with the bill coming before the House and Senate in various iterations over the course of 1918 and falling short of passage by one or two votes each time. It took 41 years from when that first bill was introduced, before the amendment finally managed to pass Congress in 1919 and then ratified by the appropriate number of states in 1920. The ratification occurred on August 18th, 1920. It was certified into law on August 26th.

Original paper from congressional session ratifying the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, granting women the right to vote, 1919. Image courtesy National Archives. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images).

But it wasn’t until the 1960s and the sexual revolution and the wave of feminism before anyone saw fit to consider this momentous day one worth marking. In 1971, Bella Abzug proposed “Women’s Equality Day be marked on August 26th of every year following. It passed, and thus Women’s Equality Day has been observed every year since.

Growing up in the 80s and 90s, during the feminist backlash years, this was actually a holiday I didn’t know existed. it wasn’t until a few years ago that observances of this day began to make public news again. This year, of course, with Hillary Clinton marching towards the white house like Sherman through Georgia, the day takes on an even greater significance. It’s been 137 years since that bill was first introduced. The Equal Rights Amendment still hasn’t passed. Women still make less then men for equal work. Sexism is still a thing, women are still routinely harassed off the internet…. when you look at it up close, we still have so far to go, so many mountains to climb.

PHILADELPHIA, PA – JULY 28: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton acknowledges the crowd as she arrives on stage during the fourth day of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center, July 28, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton received the number of votes needed to secure the party’s nomination. An estimated 50,000 people are expected in Philadelphia, including hundreds of protesters and members of the media. The four-day Democratic National Convention kicked off July 25. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

But taking the long view, we’ve also come a long way. And the tide has turned our way once again, if we stand up now and seize this time, this day, and make our voices heard. We can change this country for all the generations to come and smash through those glass ceilings that we thought were unbreakable, so much so we stopped looking up.

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In 2020, it will be 100 years since women got the right to vote. Look ahead towards that date, and let’s all do the women who got us here proud.