Women's Equality Day pays tribute to heroes and reminds us of the work ahead: Opinion
For all of us, but especially the 50.5% who are female, today is truly special for our country, because it marks 102 years since the certification of the 19th Amendment, two short but powerful sentences that removed gender as a barrier to voting.
Fifty-three years later, Congress commemorated this constitutional milestone by declaring August 26th as Women’s Equality Day. We believe this holiday holds a dual purpose: First, to pay tribute to the heroes making this victory possible and, second, to rededicate ourselves to tearing down the considerable barriers that remain – and the new ones that inexplicably are still being built.
It is a point of pride that Kentucky was a leader in ratifying the 19th Amendment. In fact, the General Assembly made it official on the first day of 1920’s legislative session, and later passed a law guaranteeing women would be able to vote that year even if the amendment was not yet official.
It is no coincidence that doubling the potential number of voters suddenly moved the needle when it came to legislative action. Just a year after women began voting, Congress enacted the Sheppard-Towner Act, legislation designed to reduce the sky-high rates of maternal and infant mortality.
In the decades that followed, women demanded and received more reproductive and economic freedoms, and we played vital roles in expanding civil and voting rights for those who also spent too much of our history on the outside looking in.
More:City leaders, partners celebrate Women’s Equality Day Aug. 27 at the Filson
Our work is far from over, however. Last month, the 16th annual Global Gender Gap Report said it would be another 132 years before the world can expect true parity among men and women. That number is almost a third higher than it was before the pandemic, underscoring just how fragile any progress is, and the United States is a far-too-low - 27 among the 146 countries surveyed.
In the U.S., nearly 40% of the 400 women ever elected to Congress are still serving, while fewer than 50 have been governor. Just four state legislative chambers have had more women serving than men, and the first of those occurred only a dozen years ago.
There have been some gains, but only when considering that zero has often been the baseline. Women are now running more than 40 Fortune 500 companies, for example, which is a six-fold increase when compared to 2002. Women have also outnumbered men in postsecondary enrollment for the last 40 years.
Nevertheless, the gender pay gap has come down less than a penny a year for each dollar earned since the federal Equal Pay Act of 1963 ostensibly sought to level the playing field economically. The 16-cent gap that remains has moved little over the last dozen years.
Opinion:Marking women's history with the Kentucky Votes for Women Trail
On this Women’s Equality Day, we must ask ourselves what else can be done to bring about true parity. We no longer should tolerate incremental change.
There is no single solution, of course, and women, like men, are not monolithic in our views. Nevertheless, there is ample reason to believe that if every woman eligible to vote did, it would begin to change our country’s dynamic in ways comparable to what we saw after the 19th Amendment became law.
In this world, it is far more likely the gender wage gap would not take decades to close, and there would almost certainly be a more unified push to reverse maternal death rates that are worse today than they were three decades ago.
Drug trials and medical treatments would better reflect their impact on women; there likely would be more spending parity in women’s sports; and professions that women have historically dominated would be less likely to bear the brunt of future recessions, as we saw in the months that followed the pandemic’s arrival.
The urgency to achieve equality for women is not where it should be. We believe that would change if there were more women in the rooms where major decisions are made.
As we celebrate Women’s Equality Day, we can and should be proud that women’s voices are louder than they have ever been, even while we argue that we deserve to be heard much more. What we know for sure is that waiting decades for gender parity is out of the question. If we want significant change, we must wield the power we have to demand it, and that starts this November.
If you are registered to vote, or are thinking about it, we urge you not to pass up this opportunity. If you have any questions about registration or how to obtain an absentee ballot, you can find many answers at GoVoteKy.com. That online portal is a virtual window leading to a better reality for us all.
Kentucky House Democratic Women's Caucus: Representatives Lisa Willner, Joni Jenkins, Angie Hatton, Nima Kulkarni, Attica Scott, Cherlynn Stevenson, Patti Minter, Kelly Flood, Mary Lou Marzian, Pam Stevenson, Keturah Herron, Josie Raymond, Tina Bojanowski, Rachel Roberts, Susan Westrom, Ruth Ann Palumbo and Ashley Tackett Laferty.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Women's Equality Day pays tribute to heroes, reminds us of work ahead
