Women's Equality Day

Today is a very special day.

Today is Women's Equality Day.

Today we commemorate the passage of the 19th Amendment, the Women's Suffrage Amendment to the US Constitution, which gave United States women full voting rights in 1920.

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This issue is very near and dear to my heart.  Wyoming first gave women voting privileges in 1869.  I am a second generation Wyomingite and am very proud to come from the equality state.  Some women concerned with the voting issue were very impressed and would travel to Wyoming just to be somewhere this right existed.

My grandmother was a young girl when this amendment was ratified.

She knows what a privilege we have in this country.

I am very thankful to the women, and men, who worked so hard to make voting a reality for all women in this country.

In 1971 a joint resolution of congress established the first Women's Equality Day, it reads:

WHEREAS, the women of the United States have been treated as second-class citizens and have not been entitled the full rights and privileges, public or private, legal or institutional, which are available to male citizens of the United States, and

WHEREAS, the women of the United States have united to assure that these rights and privileges are available to all citizens equally regardless of sex; and

WHEREAS, the women of the United States have designated August 26, the anniversary date of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, as symbol of the continued fight for equal rights: and

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.

The suffrage movement's colors were purple, which represented dignity; gold, which represented spirit; and white, representing purity. 

Today, in honor of Women's Equality Day, we are having tea. 

We will be having a spicy chai tea and butter cookies.  We will be using our Crate and Barrel tea set and our Embassy U.S.A. Vitrified china with little purple flowers, pretty white napkins, and gold tone tea spoons. The purple doily I made while we were in Alaska.  Using the colors associated with the suffrage movement we celebrate our right under the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.

Amendment XIX
The right of the 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.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Happy Women's Equality Day!!!