In 1971, thanks to Representative Bella Abzug, the U.S. Congress declared August 26th Women’s Equality Day.

The date was not a random choice, but chosen to commemorate the day in 1920 when the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was finally certified and gave women the right to vote, some 42 years after it was first proposed. 

"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.”

Women’s right to vote was a hard-earned victory, the battle for which started back in 1848 at the world’s first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York. Brave and tireless suffragettes like Susan B. Anthony, Alice Paul, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone and Ida B. Wells, to name just a handful, fought for the right for decades, facing discrimination and brutalities in the process.

Today on Women’s Equality Day 2020, we celebrate 100 years of women having the vote. We acknowledge the hard work, bravery and sacrifice of women both seen and unseen, fighting past and present, for equality for women, a self-evident truth that has been far from evident in the real world.

So how should we mark this day?

If you’re a woman, be sure you’re registered to vote! This is the best way to honor the heroic women who fought so hard for our suffrage and especially important in this election year.

If you’re a man, commit (or recommit) to standing by the women in your life. Listen to their stories, to their dreams, to their grievances, and fight beside them for a more equitable world.

We should all take time to learn about the women’s suffrage movement and the courageous women who have come before us. We should celebrate and listen to the feminists and truth speakers of today who continue the movement.

This 100th anniversary of Women’s Equality Day is both an opportunity to celebrate the 19th Amendment and a reminder of gender-based discrimination, wage and opportunity differences between women and men, and the underrepresentation of women in all parts of society. It is a rally cry for modern women and men to keep fighting for women’s equality in the present and future. The suffragettes would say our work is not done!