Women's Equality Day - 2011

Today, August 26, is Women's Equality Day in the United States, enacted 40 years ago in commemoration of the passage of the 19th amendment. 

Full equality for women will remain a dream until we get a new amendment which hard wires it into the Constitution. The ERA was passed in 1972 and ratified by 35 states -- just three short of what was needed to make it the law of the land.

It was derailed by the forerunners of today's Tea Party. 

Earlier this year, new ERA ratification bills were introduced in Congress, and on February 11, Virginia took a step closer to being the 36th state when its Senate passed a resolution ratifying the ERA. However, its companion bill in the House of Delegates never came to a vote.

The right to vote was earned after a long, hard fight, so we should not be surprised that full equality will be just as hard won. Use the rights you have wisely.