WASHINGTON, DC - House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (MD) released the following statement today on the 88th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote:

 

"Today, we commemorate the day the 19th Amendment was ratified, 88 years ago, and American women were afforded the right to vote. Since America’s founding, each generation has brought new meaning to the word “equality.” The 19th Amendment was the greatest expansion of democratic rights our nation has ever seen. We owe that achievement to trailblazers like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, suffragists like Alice Paul and Lucie Burns, and thousands more whose names may be lost to history, but whose impact is felt every time a woman casts a ballot. As the father of three daughters, it is sobering to remember that their right to be treated as democratic equals was generations in the making.

 

"But the years since 1920 have shown us that the right to vote was in many ways only a beginning. A vote does not guarantee freedom from harassment and discrimination, equal representation in our government, a fair shot in the workplace, or access to affordable healthcare. The right to vote is necessary to all of those goals, but it is far from sufficient.

 

"That is why the work of equality continues. We mark today’s  anniversary not to congratulate ourselves, but to gather strength for the work to come."