Women's Equality Day

Annually, August 26th commemorates the passage in 1920 of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which gave women the right to vote. This was the culmination of a peaceful civil rights movement that began in 1848 with the first organized women's assembly for equal rights. It took 72 years for the legislation to be enacted. The women who lobbied for this were known as suffragists –a voting tablet in ancient times.

Interestingly, the women of New Zealand were granted the right to vote in 1893. More information can be found on the website National Women's History Project www.nwhp.org