Importance of gender equality

Annually on August 26, Women’s Equality Day celebrates the anniversary of the adoption of the 19th Amendment to the United States’ Constitution on August 26, 1920. The amendment granted women the right to vote for the first time and was a result of the women’s suffrage movement in the country.

Women’s Equality Day was first celebrated in 1971 after the Congress passed a resolution to mark the occasion each year. The purpose behind this observance was to raise awareness about the importance of gender equality in society and to recognize the hard work and sacrifices made by the pioneers in the suffrage movement.

After 105 years, there still remains plenty of gender inequality, but the needle is moving. Too slow for some, too fast for others, and as pioneering physicist and chemist Marie Curie noted, “I was taught the way of progress was neither swift nor easy.”