Women’s Equality Day is August 26

“Remember the ladies.”

Those famous words were spoken by Abigail Adams to her husband as he was at the Continental Congress, working on a little known document called the Declaration of Independence. Unfortunately for Abigail and all of the women of that time, John and the other men of the Continental Congress definitely forgot the ladies. In fact they forgot about the ladies for the next 144 years, until women finally earned the right to vote.

August 26 is Women’s Equality Day, in celebration of the adoption of the 19th Amendment, the amendment that gave women the right to vote. The 19th Amendment was ratified on August 18, 1920, when the battleground state of Tennessee, as it was at the time, voted to ratify the amendment. Harry Burn changed his vote to yes after reading a very impassioned pleading letter from his mother, who wrote to him and said to be a good boy and put the “rat in ratification” and vote for the amendment.

Originally Burn had decided that he was going to vote no, but after reading his mother’s letter, he chose to vote yes. When asked why, he said, “I knew that a mother’s advice is always safest for a boy to follow and my mother wanted me to vote for ratification.”

On August 26, 1970, 50 years after the 19th amendment was adopted, Betty Friedan and the National Organization for Women organized a nationwide Women’s Strike for Equality. Women across the country joined together to demand equal opportunities in employment and education, as well as 24-hour childcare centers. This was the largest protest for gender equality in United States history.

The next year, in 1971, Representative Bella Abzug of New York introduced a successful bill designating August 26th of each year as Women’s Equality Day. “Women’s Equality Day is a symbol of women’s continued fight for equal rights and that the United States commends and supports them,” part of the bill reads.

In 1923, Alice Paul wrote the Equal Rights Amendment – and it sat there, and sat there, until it was once again picked up in 1972. Congress passed the ERA, but included a seven-year ratification deadline. In 1982 the deadline passed, with the amendment three states short of the required 38.

But women kept fighting. Then, between 2017 and 2020, the states of Nevada, Illinois, and Virginia ratified, reaching the 38-state threshold. In 2025 former President Joe Biden declared the ERA “law of the land.”

But here’s the thing – it’s not officially written into law. The ERA is not fully an amendment. So there are no laws and protections against discrimination of sex. Yes, there are precedents that protect women and give women a right to sue, but as far as being an amendment and a government right, the answer is still … not yet.

In 2026 equal rights for all sexes is still not a law. But we keep fighting.

As long as we have people like Alice Paul, who fought to have us earn the right to vote, and as long as we have people like Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who fought so that women can have their own bank accounts and own their own homes, and feminists like Gloria Steinem, who didn’t keep quiet about many things that women faced … as long as we have one woman who’s willing to be loud and refuse to allow herself to be silenced, we will fight.

Because one voice can silence a crowd.

Elizabeth Graves lives with way too many animals and not enough sanity. She is passionate about the arts, especially theatre.  And she enjoys any reason to dress in a costume.