The United States celebrates Women's Equality Day on August 26th. The National Women's History website explains:

"At the behest of Rep. Bella Abzug (D-NY), in 1971 the U.S. Congress designated August 26 as 'Women’s Equality Day.'

The date was selected to commemorate the 1920 passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote. This was the culmination of a massive, peaceful civil rights movement by women that had its formal beginnings in 1848 at the world's first women's rights convention, in Seneca Falls, New York."

Tennessee Guerilla Women reminds readers that only a short time ago, the idea of women having the right to vote was considered radical:

"Of all the resolutions passed at Seneca Falls, the resolve to demand the right to vote was thought to be by far the most radical. So radical, that Lucretia Mott feared it would make the women appear to be 'ridiculous.'"

Her blog post also contains some historical anti-suffrage posters, so pop over to read "Happy Equality Day!".

Poet Sherry Chandler is a fan of author and radio personality Garrison Keillor. But as a feminist, she comments that at his website Keillor "celebrates the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution…without mentioning a single woman by name."

She remarks dryly:

"Would have interfered with the narrative, I guess."

Visit her blog to read the whole post, where she rectifies the situation by listing historical figures Susan B. Anthony, Amelia Bloomer, Alice Paul, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

Diane Dees at The Dees Diversion takes the day as an opportunity to highlight President Bush's empty rhetoric. Read her whole post, "Happy Women's Equality Day to you, too".

Related links

List of suffragists and suffragettes, Wikipedia
National Women's History Project

Photo credits: National Women's History Project, The Writer's Almanac

BlogHer Contributing Editor Melinda Casino also writes at Sour Duck.

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