Women's Equality Day

VA proudly joins the Nation in celebrating Women's Equality Day each year on August 26. Congress designated this date in 1971 to honor women's continuing efforts toward full equality. Spearheading the effort was U.S. Representative Bella Abzug (D-NY).

The 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote was certified as part of the U.S. Constitution on August 26, 1920. It was the culmination of a 72-year-long civil rights movement that originated at the world's first women's rights convention held in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. Several generations of women's suffrage supporters wrote, lectured, marched, and lobbied to achieve what many Americans considered a radical change to the Constitution. Few early supporters lived to see victory in 1920.

For more information on VA's Federal Women's Program, contact Wanda Jones at (202) 461-4039 or e-mail her at wanda.jones@va.gov.

Links:

• National Women's Program Page
• ODI Event planning tool
• Suggested activities for special observances
• VA Center for Women Veterans
• American Women's History: A Research Guide
• Military Women's Firsts
• National Women's Health Information Center
• National Women's Hall of Fame
• National Women's History Project
• Schlesinger Library for the History of Women in America
• Task Force on the Employment and Advancement of Women in the Department of Veterans Affairs
• The 19th Amendment
• The Women in the Military Project
• Women's Suffrage
• Women's Suffrage: A World Chronology
• Women's Organization