Women’s Equality Day is the celebration and commemoration of the 1920 adoption of the 19th amendment giving women the right to vote.
A Bit of History:
January 10, 1878: The Women’s Suffrage Amendment was introduced.
June 1919: 41 years after the amendment was introduced, it was approved by both the House and Senate. This meant suffragists had one year to lobby state legislatures to pass the bill. They needed 2/3rds of the states to pass the bill.
August 24, 1920: Tennessee became the 36th and final state to ratify the amendment. Fun fact: It passed by one vote which belonged to Harry Burn. He voted for it after his mom urged him to.
August 26, 1920: Secretary of State, Bainbridge Colby, signed the amendment into law.
August 26, 1970: Fifty years later, Betty Friedan and the National Organization of Women organized a nationwide Women’s Strike for Equality.
1971: New York Democratic Representative, Bella Abzug, introduced a successful bill making August 26th of each year as Women’s Equality Day.
Is your organization recognizing Women’s Equality Day? If so, what are they doing?
If you want to learn more about Women’s Equity, check out Dr. Froswa Booker-Drew‘s Women in the Workplace course or Karuna Thomas and Aliah Henry‘s Allyship course. Or if you want to book a speaker to discuss Women’s Equality with your organization, contact us at LetsGo@DiversityCrew.com.
Resources:
One reply on “Women’s Equality Day: August 26th”
[…] Recently, we received an email from Julie. She let us know that her daughter Grace was doing some research on the Women’s Suffrage Movement. Ever the caring mom, Julie looked over Grace’s shoulders as she tried to find a site with the information she needed. Then she found our Women’s Suffrage blog. […]