Celebrate Women’s Equality Day

Come to a Rally at Civic Center Plaze in Albuquerque
Friday, August 26 between 11 AM and 1 PM

Over the past few years the Humanist Society of NM and the Albuquerque Chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) have held public celebrations of Women’s Equality Day to remind all citizens that the right to vote comes with the responsibility to vote and that our work for women’s inclusion as equal partners with men in our country will not be done until the Equal Rights Amendment, written by Alice Paul in 1923, is ratified by 38 states and added to the Constitution.

The Southwest Women’s Law Center, in collaboration with Abq-NOW, League of Women Voters and other women-focused local and statewide organizations, will hold a rally at Civic Center Plaza in Albuquerque on Friday, August 26 between 11 AM and 1 PM. The event will feature real-time linkages via Skype, Facebook and Twitter with women from all 33 counties in NM projected on a jumbotron. The women will speak about issues of concern that impact their lives and the lives of women in their communities.

The objective of the celebration is to get women to vote and vote their mission, whatever it is. To that end it will focus on getting every woman, who is eligible, registered to vote with an emphasis on 17-year-olds who will be 18 by November 8, 2016.

There will be no political speeches nor promotion of any candidates or platforms. Ultimately, the goal is to build a community of strong women who will rise up, get engaged, and get to the polls in 2016.

For more information and to participate in this event, please contact Pamelya Herndon, Executive Director SWLC, at 505-244-0502 or pherndon@swwomenslaw.org .

History of Women’s Suffrage and Women’s Equality Day

On June 4, 1919, Congress, by joint resolution, approved the woman’s suffrage amendment and sent it to the states for ratification. The House of Representatives had voted 304-89 and the Senate 56-25 in favor of the amendment. It had taken 71 years, since the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments, to get to this point.

The national campaign to have the amendment ratified by 2/3 of the 48 states was led by suffragists, Alice Paul and Carrie Chapman Catt, who used different tactics but got all the states needed for ratification by August 18, 1920. Women’s right to vote in the US became the law of the land when it was added to the Constitution on August 26, 1920.

In 1971 Bella Abzug, Representative from New York, was successful in having a bill passed in Congress to have August 26 recognized annually as Women’s Equality Day.

For more information and to participate in this event, please contact Pamelya Herndon, Executive Director SWLC, at 505-244-0502 or pherndon@swwomenslaw.org .

Submitted by Sylvia M. Ramos, MD
ERA Task Force Chair, Albuquerque-NOW