This Women's Equality Day, Let's Remain Vigilant

August 26th is Women’s Equality Day. First designated by Congresswoman Bella Abzug (D-NY20) in 1971, the day marks the anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which formally granted women the right to vote. Over the decades, however, Women's Equality Day has transformed into a celebration of not only the 19th Amendment, but also the continued struggle for equality and fairness that women of all backgrounds and ages across the United States face.

First, we would be doing Representative Abzug, appropriately nicknamed "Battling Bella," and women everywhere a disfavor if we celebrated the passage of the 19th Amendment without recognizing its complex history. The 19th Amendment was not a victory for all women and to celebrate it as such is historically inaccurate and exclusionary: The amendment guaranteed only white women access to the polls. The voting rights of Black women (and men) remained actively suppressed by Jim Crow laws for years after, and only once the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965 were barriers to political participation based on race or ethnicity barred. Lauding the 19th Amendment without recognizing its limitations, therefore, fails to come to acknowledge the ways in which the mainstream feminist movement has historically centered the lives of white women, and continues to do so. Recognizing the amendment's limitations on its 50th Anniversary, therefore, is an overdue step in the right direction.

We should also celebrate the fact that women of color, queer women, and poor women refused to simply accept exclusion from the legal benefits conferred by the 19th Amendment, but instead used their collective power to organize far-reaching agendas that addressed the intersecting terms of their oppression. During the 1970s, for example, the National Welfare Rights Organization (NWRO), led by Johnnie Tillmon, a woman of color, advocated for a guaranteed minimum income for single mothers. The NWRO asserted that all people should receive social services and support regardless of their employment or marital status. Although the NWRO never explicitly identified as feminist, their expansive social justice agenda for single mothers fits comfortably within the feminist movement’s goal to recognize a woman’s right to self-determination.

The notion that those most marginalized in society should have the right to determine the trajectory of their own lives, including when and how they want to raise their children, remains a central tenet of the contemporary reproductive justice agenda.  Feminists and those active in the current reproductive justice movement have continued to pursue legal victories that honor women's diverse life experiences in this vein. For example, this September marks 40 years of the Hyde Amendment, which denies Medicaid coverage of abortion and bars many low-income women from accessing their Constitutional right simply because of the source of their health insurance. As those in the reproductive justice movement have so aptly demonstrated, securing an equal right without accounting for obstacles to accessing that rights results in a varying state of actual equality across the country. Organizations like All* Above All, led proudly by women of color and young women, are addressing this, though, and are taking action to #BeBoldEndHyde to ensure access to a woman's constitutional right becomes a reality around the country.

The important activist work being done to ensure that all women, not just the most privileged, can actually exercise their constitutional rights — like their right to accessing an abortion — is the kind of work that we should celebrate and continue to pursue. Days like this are an important opportunity to celebrate and remind ourselves of how women have struggled to secure a more equitable, fair future for all of us. When we’re surrounded by a near constant barrage of state-level attacks on abortion rights and consistent everyday sexism, taking a day to remember the accomplishments made by the fierce women who came before us is necessary - especially for young feminists who are current and future leaders. Instead of papering over the uncomfortable parts of our collective feminist history, we can admit our past failures, learn from them, and start building a radically inclusive future for all of us.