In times of turmoil, it’s good to remember that change is possible.
How do we know change is possible? Because there have been many extraordinary moments in our collective past when positive leaps of societal evolution took place seemingly out of nowhere.
Women’s Equality Day celebrated every August 26th since the early 1970s, is intended to honor one such significant moment in history.
What is Women’s Equality Day?
Before 1920, women were prohibited by law from voting in any elections. Women were presumed to be politically irrelevant, even too delicate for the difficulties of politics.
Of course, many women did not see it the same way, but since women’s voices were not represented, it was difficult to change public perception. To this day, equality remains a disputed topic.
Since the passing of the nineteenth amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920, women have been participating in politics in greater measure, as voters as well as elected representatives.
Achieving the right to vote was an important milestone for women because it meant that women had to be reckoned with in the political sphere. Once women gained the right to vote, candidates running for office needed to inform themselves and show some measure of care for topics close to women’s hearts, in order to get elected.
Gradually, through political action and other channels, the subjective experience of women gained visibility and greater understanding within the larger collective consciousness. Women gradually became protagonists in the story of life, and not only objects and side characters, just there to support the narratives of men.
What is the history of Women’s Equality Day?
In the early 1970s, 50 years after the proclamation which granted the women’s vote was signed into law by then-Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby, Women’s Equality Day was officially designated by Congress as a day to celebrate and recognize the importance of women’s suffrage.
A proclamation was introduced by New York Congresswoman Bella Abzug in 1971 and again in 1973, as debates and struggles over the (still controversial) topic of the Equal Rights Amendment took place all around the nation. Abzug’s proclamation was a response to the 1970 Women’s Strike for Women’s Equality.
In 1972, President Richard Nixon issued a proclamation officially recognizing August 26th as Women’s Rights Day, and in 1973 Congress approved the resolution, changing the name to Women’s Equality Day. Since then, each President has rededicated August 26th in honor of Women’s Equality.
What is the importance of Women’s Equality Day?
Women who grew up with the right to vote may not have full appreciation for the bitter nature of the struggle that was necessary to bring women’s equality to the light of national attention. As unsupportive of the female principle as our current social structure is, the situation was worse in the generations immediately before us, in which basic rights of protection and recognition of our subject-hood were not given. It’s an important reminder to preserve and protect what we cherish, which our foremothers sought to ensure for us.
As all generations of women stand on the shoulders of those before us, it’s important to understand and recognize what women before us fought for, and what they overcame.
Women’s Equality Day is important because it reminds us to never forget the power of people coming together with a positive purpose.
What are ways to honor Women’s Equality Day?
Express Your Point of View
If you appreciate your right to vote, to have an opinion, political or otherwise, and to express your personal point of view, say thank you in your heart right now to the women who came before us.
You may also celebrate them and what they gave so that we could be free, by exercising those freedoms now, for example by speaking your mind!
Use your politically-protected right to express yourself by sharing what you see, what you feel, and what you sense about yourself, each other, and our world. Your subjectivity matters.
Enjoy Being You
In 2024, American women have the most freedom to be themselves we have ever had in recorded history. We are free to compete, to win, to be strong, to be creative, to be intelligent.
Perhaps most important of all, we are free to live our lives from within, as the authors of our own experience and not only as an object of another person’s lens. We have the opportunity to live our lives from the inside out, and not the other way around.
We are here not only to be looked at but also to look. We are active, organic, alive intelligence in a human body, representing the feminine principle and perspective, as grandmothers, daughters, sisters, wives, girlfriends, partners, elders, matriarchs, leaders, and more.
Enjoy your freedom to be a person, unique and individual in all the beautiful ways you actually are, by actually being you, whatever that looks like today. Be as authentic as you can. Forgive yourself for not matching the impossible standard. Let yourself be you. This is a freedom worth cherishing.
What are ways to support Women’s Equality Day?
If Women’s Equality Day means something to you, talk about it to people in your life. Reflect on what it means that just over a century ago, we were considered politically irrelevant, presumed to not have anything of value to contribute to the political sphere. If you disagree with that, speak up and contribute. Shine your light, and share your piece!
You may also want to go out of your way to lend extra support and recognition to women you know who are holding it down in a difficult spot, or who are pioneering in their field. Watch movies made by women, listen to women’s music, support women-owned businesses, and learn more about women’s experiences.
Every moment, in every day, we are gradually shifting this “man’s world” back to a world in which men and women are equal partners in the co-creation of our social structure, sharing power in mutual appreciation, recognition, and protection of all.
Villa Kali Ma supports Women’s Equality Day
At Villa Kali Ma, as a women-centered business providing services for women, we support Women’s Equality Day! We value women – ourselves and the women in our lives. That’s why we’re devoted to helping all women everywhere experience the freedom of healing profoundly from trauma, addiction, and mental illness. The more women are healed, the more we can heal the rest of the world too.
Happy Women’s Equality Day to all!