Women’s Equality Day 2025: A Clarion Call

August 26, 2025

Given the current war on women’s rights and dignity, our ability to vote (look up the SAVE Act), recognition of our accomplishments and leadership in science, the military, business, education, government (being erased from government websites, national parks, and perhaps the Smithsonian), and Trump firing women like the first female commandant of the Coast Guard and Librarian of Congress (for no cause other than mutterings about the supposed evils of DEI), it feels hard to celebrate this year’s Women’s Equality Day.

But let’s—with some righteous, stubborn defiance. Use its celebration of the 19th Amendment’s final ratification as a clarion call. Just as the women who brought about this commemoration in 1973 certainly did.

Three years earlier, on the 50th anniversary of our being granted—finally—the right to vote, Betty Friedan, author of The Feminine Mystique and cofounder of the National Organization for Women (NOW), organized a National Women’s Strike with her feminist sisters-in-arms.  

Women flooded the streets in over 40 cities across the nation. In New York City, an estimated 50,000 women shut down Fifth Avenue, demanding equal opportunities in education and employment, affordable and more accessible childcare, and legal access to abortion. Many homemakers joined in, refusing to clean or cook that day, under the banner of “Don’t iron while the strike is hot.”

Riding the momentum of that extraordinary 1970 march birthed by 2nd Wave feminism, Congresswoman Martha Griffith (D-MI) managed to garner enough signatures on a rarely used procedural tactic to drag the Equal Rights Amendment out of committee—where opponents had kept it bottled up for decades—onto the floor for debate.  

There were only 12 women among the 435 House members. And yet, on October 21st, 1971, the House passed the ERA with a resounding 354 yeas to 24 nays. Five months later, the then all-male Senate also adopted the ERA: 84 to 8.

Within one year, 30 states had ratified. A whopping 83 percent of polled Americans—women AND men—said they wanted the amendment that guaranteed “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”

Why was it (and still is) needed? Because here’s a few examples of the way it was in 1973:

Women made up only four percent of attorneys and three percent of elected officials or appointees.

Institutions of higher learning, like UVA, had only been accepting female undergrads for three years, and then only about seven percent of incoming classes.

It was accepted business practice for women to be fired from their jobs as soon as they married and definitely when they were pregnant (totally legal until 1978).

As was the case with many businesses, Newsweek didn’t allow women to be bylined reporters—only anonymous researchers adding substance to male staffers’ writing—until human rights attorney Eleanor Holmes Norton filed an EEOC complaint for 46 women researchers, newspaper clippers, and “mail girls.” It was the first suit for gender discrimination against a US employer.

Want Ads were segregated: FEMALE WANTED: clerical, MALE WANTED: management

Women could not obtain a credit card without her hubby or daddy co-signing. BUT, American Express made the mistake of denying Congresswoman “Battling Bella” Abzug one—even as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives—unless her husband co-signed. She promptly introduced the Equal Credit Opportunity Act.

Wanting to keep up the pressure on remaining states to ratify the ERA, Abzug (D, NY) also introduced a bill to create this day for the nation to pause, consider, and reckon with how far women’s rights had come, but also how far they had yet to go.

Which seems an important set of questions to ponder today, and to use in strategizing our next steps as the administration, its Project 2025 hitmen, MAGA, and the “Christian nation” and “evangelical patriarchy” movement seek to pin what they see as a crisis in the American family and traditions on women having autonomy and opportunity. And to undo our hard-won standing in society as full-citizens.

Think this is alarmist? Remember in 1973, when women had so far to go to win a level playing field in terms of professional and financial equity, we DID have the right to legal abortion. Granted in January 1973. Something that has been stripped from us by this Supreme Court.

As the late, great RBG wrote in one of her resounding dissents: a stereotyped, gendered notion of citizenship in which women were “regarded as the center of home and family life, with attendant special responsibilities that precluded full and independent legal status under the Constitution” denied equal citizenship. “Those views are no longer consistent with our understanding of the family, the individual, or the Constitution,” she continued. Full and equal citizenship in the workplace and in public life “is intimately connected to a person's ability to control their reproductive lives.”

I still end with hope. Take as reassurance that equal rights IS possible IF we unite in our efforts by remembering that in 1973, eight out of every ten Americans believed in women’s intrinsic equality and abilities and that our laws should reflect that and prevent sexist discrimination. Even Richard Nixon. Below is the full text of his proclamation: 

By the President of the United States Of America

A Proclamation

Fifty-three years ago, on August 26, 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment was certified as part of our Constitution, assuring that "the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."

The struggle for women's suffrage, however, was only the first step toward full and equal participation of women in our Nation's life. In recent years, we have made other giant strides by attacking sex discrimination through our laws and by paving new avenues to equal economic opportunity for women. Today, in virtually every sector of our society, women are making important contributions to the quality of American life.

And yet, much still remains to be done. American women, though they represent a majority of our population, still suffer from myriad forms of discrimination.

In the pursuit of equal rights for women, the Federal Government must take the lead and set the example. As I reminded the heads of executive departments and agencies in 1971, American women represent an important reservoir of ability and dedication which Government must draw upon to a greater degree. I therefore directed at that time that the Government demonstrate its recognition of the equality of women by making greater use of their skills.

Last year, with the enactment of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, a strong new statutory base was provided for furthering equal opportunity for women in the Federal Government. With the help of this new tool, Federal agencies are now carrying out affirmative action plans to guarantee full opportunity for the advancement of women in accordance with their abilities. During the past two years, the number of women in the middle and higher grade levels of Government employment has significantly increased. And we are determined to do better still.

While we are making great strides to eliminate outright job discrimination because of sex in the Federal Government, we must recognize that people's attitudes cannot be changed by laws alone. There still exist elusive prejudices born of mores and customs that stand in the way of progress for women. We must do all that we can to overcome these barriers against what is fair and right.

Because I firmly believe that women should not be denied equal protection of the laws of this Nation and equal opportunity to participate fully in our national life, I reaffirm again my support for the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution. This amendment can represent a giant step forward in achieving full equality of opportunity for all Americans as we approach the 200th birthday of our Nation. I hope it will be speedily ratified.

The Congress has, by House Joint Resolution 52, 93rd Congress, designated August 26, 1973, as Women's Equality Day, and authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation in commemoration of that day in 1920 on which women of America were first guaranteed the right to vote.

Now, Therefore, I, Richard Nixon, President of the United States of America, do hereby call upon the people of the United States and interested groups and organizations to observe August 26, 1973, as Women's Equality Day with appropriate ceremonies and activities. I further urge all our people to use this occasion to reflect on the importance of achieving equal rights and opportunities for women and to dedicate themselves anew to that great goal. For the cause of equal rights and opportunities for women is inseparable from the cause of human dignity and equal justice for all.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand