Statement from NOW President Toni Van Pelt:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Ninety-nine years ago we finally saw the end of men’s denial of women’s fundamental right to vote. Through 150 years of organizing, protesting and perseverance suffragists broke the unjust constraints on women’s constitutional rights as citizens.

As we near the 100th anniversary of women’s right to vote being enshrined in the constitution, we look forward to an exciting year of public speeches, rallies and marches that honor suffragists such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Ida B. Wells, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone and Alice Paul. We also honor the later accomplishments of civil rights leaders like Fannie Lou Hamer who worked tirelessly to ensure that women of color and Native American women had full access to the ballot box.

We also look to the future and see that we face some of the same obstacles in our decades-long struggle to finally ratify the Equal Rights Amendment that the suffragists once faced. In fact, we hear echoes of the same arguments used against the right to vote now used against the ERA. But like the suffragists, we will persevere. There is no doubt that 2020 will be the year that we celebrate both the centennial of the right to vote and finally securing full equality for women in the U.S. Constitution.

Learn more information about the history of the women’s suffrage movement here.

Discover events happening around the country in honor of Women’s Equality Day 2019 and 2020 here.

Contact

Kimberly Hayes, Press Secretary, press@now.org, 202-570-4745