August 26: Women’s Equality Day

Women’s Equality Day was established by Congress on this date in 1971, thanks to the activism of Representative Bella Abzug. Women’s Equality Day commemorates passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution on August 26, 1920, establishing women’s long-delayed right to vote. Fifty years later, on August 26, 1970, Betty Friedan led the Women’s Strike for Equality , which brought women out in forty American cities to demonstrate in support of the Equal Rights Amendment. The ERA was passed by Congress in 1972 but was ratified by only thirty-five of the thirty-eight states required.

“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.”

—Joint Resolution of Congress