Women's Equality Day

After a 72 year struggle, on August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the U.S. was finally ratified, granting women the right to vote nationwide. It is referred to as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment and it states, "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."  To honor and recognize the ongoing efforts of women towards equality, President Carter and the U.S. Congress designated August 26 as Women's Equality Day in 1971. In 1995, the Susan B. Anthony Amendment (19th Amendment), celebrated its 75th anniversary.

In 1848, a convention in Seneca Falls was convened by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. It was here that America was challenged to a social revolution that would touch every aspect of life. Early women's rights leaders believed suffrage to be the most effective means to change an unjust system. By the late 1800s, nearly fifty years of progress afforded women advancement in property rights, employment and educational opportunities, divorce and child custody laws, and increased social freedoms. The early 1900s saw a successful push for the vote through a coalition of suffragists, temperance groups, reform-minded politicians, and women's social welfare organizations.

Although Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton devoted 50 years to the woman's suffrage movement, neither lived to see women gain the right to vote. But their work and that of many other suffragists contributed to the ultimate passage of the 19th amendment in 1920.