"Mr. President, how long
must women wait for liberty?" isn't your every day verbal outcry for
justice heard in modern-day America. But over the seventy-two years between the
first major women’s rights conference in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848, to
the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, women were demanding to be
heard.
Despite the milestone that
occurred on Capitol Hill, a waning interest among female-centered activism
overshadowed the atmosphere.
It wasn’t until fifty years later
on August 26th when Betty Friedan and the National Organization of
Women organized a nationwide Women’s Strike for Equality that turned the fuel into fire.
More than ninety major cities and
small towns organized demonstrations, lobbied and marched for equal
opportunities in employment and education. Lady Liberty was taken over by
forty-two feet of banners hanging from her crown stating “Women of the World
Unite.” An organized group managed to stop the ticker at the American Stock
Exchange and 50,000 women marched 5th Avenue in Manhattan. In
Chicago, an entirely women-run world’s fair highlighted the determination to
alter public opinion about women’s roles in contrast to their exclusion to
participate.
Drawing such national attention
allowed Representative Bella Abzug (D-NY) to introduce a bill in 1971 that
passed and designated August 26th of each year as Women’s Equality
Day. Every president since then is authorized to issue a proclamation recognizing
the day.
Today, women hold political and
educational leadership roles, are CEOs of billion dollar companies,
entrepreneurs, control executive editorial positions and dare to give back as
philanthropists. Although only nine years have passed for FORBES to rank the
100 most powerful women in the world, one must not forget those impacting their world
without making headlines.
As we approach the date that
marks women’s continued fight for equal rights, The M Report profiles those
women in their designated field that corresponds with the theme for Women’s
History Month 2013: Celebrating Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and
Mathematics.
Read President Obama’s 2012 “Presidential
Proclamation”
here
