Press Releases
Brendan Daly/Nadeam Elshami
202-226-7616
08/24/2007
Pelosi Statement on Women’s Equality Day
Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today commemorating Women’s Equality Day, the 87th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote. Women’s Equality Day will be celebrated on Sunday, August 26:
“On this Women’s Equality Day, we honor the suffragettes and pioneers who blazed the trail for all American women. It was their tenacity and sacrifice that paved the way for me to proudly take the gavel as the first woman Speaker of the House of Representatives in January. But as I said at the time, we have made history, now we must make progress.
“There is still significant work to be done to achieve true equality for women here and around the world. In Congress, equality in representation of elected officials is still a goal to which we aspire, as women make up only 16 percent of the House and 16 percent of the Senate.
“Health care is a basic right that too many women and their children lack. The House recently passed the Children’s Health and Medicare Protection Act, to reauthorize the State Children’s Insurance program and extend critically needed health care coverage to 6 million children. Yet the President has threatened to veto this critical legislation for low-income women and their families.
“The right to equal pay for equal work is a fundamental value, yet women still earn 77 cents for every dollar men make, and the Supreme Court ruled to deny a woman redress after the fact in a case of pay discrimination. The Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act passed by the House will ensure that women, indeed all workers subject to pay discrimination, will have all resources available, especially the protections of civil rights law, to ensure their right to fair pay.
“We must remain vigilant in the fight for equality for women. Those who came before us would expect no less. Let us honor our history and their sacrifice by continuing through our voices and our actions to support our sisters throughout the nation and the world until true equality is no longer a goal, but a reality.”