Today we celebrate Women's Equality Day, an annual commemoration of the day, August 26, that the 19th Amendment was passed in Congress, granting women the right to vote. Women's Equality Day was the invention of New York Democrat Representative and feminist Bella Abzug, who introduced the idea for the first celebration in 1971.
It's interesting that as we celebrate how far women in this country have come today, we learn about the passing of Senator Ted Kennedy, the "Liberal Lion". While Kennedy had been often criticized for his dealings with women in his private life, there's no doubt that throughout his long political career he was one of the strongest supporters of women and feminist issues, particularly health care, education, college sports equality, racial equality and reproductive rights. Without his policies that became law throughout the years, the American woman's world would be a very different place, so we thank him.
The question that now arises on this day, who will be the "next" Ted Kennedy? It seems that since Bella Abzug left Congress in 1977, there hasn't been another powerful feminist Congresswoman since, and I think that's a shame. It's time for the next generation to take up the call of Women's Equality Day, and of the legacy of the Liberal Lion, and move American women forward into the next century! What will you do to help?
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