Women's Equality Day: Celebrate, Reflect, and Act

by Roxann MtJoy · 2010-08-26 12:00:00 UTC
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Today is Women's Equality Day. It honors the 90th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which finally afforded women the right to vote 72 long, arduous, and sometimes violent years after the Seneca Falls Convention. It was on this day that then-Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby received the official record that Tennessee — the 36th and final state needed — had at last ratified the amendment. (Incidentally, the deciding vote in Tennessee was cast by a man who changed his position after reading a letter from his mother.)

While this is certainly an occasion to celebrate, to say that all American women won the right to vote on August 26, 1920, is overly simplistic. Because of racist Jim Crow laws in the south, Black women were de facto prevented from voting until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed. American history is littered with examples of denying women of color the right to vote.

Furthermore, while today is called Women's Equality Day, certainly we aren't celebrating the 90th anniversary of women achieving full equality with men in this country. We can't. It hasn't happened yet. Women working full-time in this country still only make 77 cents for every dollar that their male counterparts earn. There's nothing equal about that. As of last year, only a scant 17% of Congress was comprised of women. And you probably don't need me to throw around statistics to tell you about the corporate glass ceiling, discrimination against lesbian and trans women, or the unrelenting attack on women's bodily autonomy in this country.

So, please, celebrate Women's Equality Day. Our foremothers (and quite a few forefathers) fought long and hard to pass the 19th Amendment and we should be thankful. But, we should also be engaged and active. Too few women actually exercise that precious right to vote and have a say in how our country is run. We should fight for equal pay for equal work. We should make sure that all women — not just white, able-bodied cisgendered women — are included when we talk about equal rights. Because wouldn't it be nice to celebrate not just Women's Equality Day, but also the day when all women are treated equal?

Photo credit: ibitmylip

Roxann MtJoy is a freelance writer who previously worked as a case manager at a domestic violence shelter. She is currently attending graduate school for theater in Mount Vernon, N.Y.
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