Women's Equality Day

Joint Resolution of Congress, 1971
Designating August 26 of each year as Women’s Equality Day

WHEREAS, the women of the United States have been treated as second-class citizens and have not been entitled the full rights and privileges, public or private, legal or institutional, which are available to male citizens of the United States; and

WHEREAS, the women of the United States have united to assure that these rights and privileges are available to all citizens equally regardless of sex; and

WHEREAS, the women of the United States have designated August 26, the anniversary date of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, as symbol of the continued fight for equal rights: and

WHEREAS, the women of United States are to be commended and supported in their organizations and activities,

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that August 26th of each year is designated as Women’s Equality Day, and the President is authorized and requested to issue a proclamation annually in commemoration of that day in 1920, on which the women of America were first given the right to vote, and that day in 1970, on which a nationwide demonstration for women’s rights took place.

Thanks, Bella!

Start your Women’s Equality Day by checking out some of materials available at Carnegie-Stout Public Library, and if you have time to go exploring online, try these websites:

The Iowa Women’s Archives

http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/iwa/

The National Women’s History Project http://www.nwhp.org/resourcecenter/equalityday.php

Bend,not break: a life in two worlds by Ping Fu with MeiMei Fox.  Fu’s autobiography covers her time as a child soldier in China through her selection as Inc Magazine’s Entrepreneur of the Year.

Dearsisters: dispatches from the women’s liberation movement by Rosalyn Baxandall and Linda Gordon.  This anthology collects original documents of the feminist movement of the 1960s and 70s.

Ironjawed angels directed by Katja von Garneir with screenplay by Sally Robinson and story by Jennifer Friedes. A dramatization of the lives of Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, this DVD is a favorite of League of Women Voters members.

Alittle f’d up: why feminism is not a dirty word by Julie Zeilinger.   Try this “primer on feminism for teenagers” (so described in a review in Library Journal) by a blogger who was born in 1993. 

Notfor ourselves alone: the story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony directed by Ken Burns and produced by Paul Barnes from a book by Geoffrey C. Ward.  The friendship of two leaders of the women’s rights movement serves as the backdrop for this history lesson.

Onewoman, one vote written and produced by Ruth Pollak and Felicia Widmann.  The documentary originally aired on Public Television’s series, The American Experience. 

Strong-mindedwomen; the emergence of the woman-suffrage movement in Iowa by Louise R. Noun.  Des Moines resident Louise Noun, who died in 2002, wrote this history of suffrage in Iowa and its sequel, Morestrong-minded women: Iowa feminists tell their stories.

~Michelle, Adult Services