Women’s Equality Day… And We’re Nowhere Near Equal

Photo taken by the author at a women’s conference.

Every August 26, the United States marks Women’s Equality Day, commemorating the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920 — the amendment that gave women the right to vote.

It is framed as a celebration of progress. A symbol of democracy. A milestone toward gender equality. But that’s not the whole story.

The 19th Amendment was never a full victory. It granted rights primarily to white, middle-class women. Black women in the South were still blocked by racist Jim Crow laws. Indigenous women weren’t even recognized as U.S. citizens until 1924, and even then, many couldn’t vote until the 1960s because states found ways to disenfranchise them. Asian-American women faced barriers until the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952.

The suffrage movement itself was fractured and exclusionary. Many suffragists courted white supremacy to win support, deliberately sidelining Black women. So, from the very beginning, “women’s equality” in the U.S. was partial and conditional.

This history matters. Because even today, the victories we celebrate are fragile and incomplete.

Women’s Equality Day was first recognized in 1971 after Congresswoman Bella Abzug pushed to commemorate the anniversary of the 19th Amendment. The goal was not only to honor the suffragists of the past but also to galvanize action for the feminist battles of the 1970s: reproductive rights, workplace protections, equal pay, representation, and more.

But over the years, the meaning has been watered down. Too often this day is treated as a day of symbolic proclamations, corporate statements, and feel-good social media posts. Just like International Women’s Day. It risks becoming a hollow ritual — a pat on the back instead of a call to action.

And yet, the need for this day is greater than ever. Because in 2025, women in the United States — and across the globe — are not advancing. We are being pushed backwards.

Women’s rights in the U.S. is a story of progress reversed.

Women in the United States are facing a deliberate and coordinated rollback of rights. Here are just a few examples.

Reproductive Rights: The Supreme Court’s decision in 2022 to overturn Roe v. Wade dismantled nearly 50 years of constitutional protection for abortion rights. Today, 21 states ban or severely restrict abortion, leaving 22 million women of reproductive age without meaningful access. This is not just about abortion — it is about autonomy, healthcare, dignity, and equality.

Maternal Mortality: The U.S. has the highest maternal mortality rate of any wealthy nation. In 2021, the rate was 32.9 deaths per 100,000 live births, and Black women were nearly three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women. This is not a healthcare system that values women’s lives.

Economic Inequality: The gender wage gap persists. On average, women in the U.S. earn 82 cents for every dollar earned by men. For Black women, that drops to 70 cents. For Latina women, just 65 cents. At the current pace, the U.S. won’t close the gender pay gap until 2059.

Political Representation: Women make up just 28% of Congress. Only about 10% of Fortune 500 companies are led by women CEOs. We are far from parity in decision-making.

Gender-Based Violence: More than 1 in 3 women in the U.S. has experienced sexual violence, physical violence, or some other form during her lifetime. Violence against women remains a structural and cultural crisis.

If Women’s Equality Day is supposed to mark progress, then this is a sobering reminder: the U.S. is not moving forward. It is moving backward.

This rollback is not unique to the United States. The rest of the world is busy pushing women back as well. Across the globe, women are under attack.

• Education: Worldwide, 129 million girls are out of school — including 1.1 million girls in Afghanistan, where the Taliban have banned secondary and university education for women. The systematic erasure of girls from classrooms is an act of gender apartheid.
• Violence: Nearly 1 in 3 women worldwide has experienced physical or sexual violence. In humanitarian crises — from Sudan to Gaza to Ukraine — women face rape as a weapon of war, sexual exploitation in displacement camps, and deliberate targeting for speaking out.
• Political Power: Women make up only 27.2% of parliamentarians worldwide. At current rates, it will take 130 years to achieve gender parity in political leadership.
• Economic Inequality: The World Economic Forum projects that it will take 131 years to close the global gender gap at the current pace. Women still perform the majority of unpaid care work, limiting their economic opportunities.
• Freedom: In Iran, women continue to risk imprisonment and death for resisting mandatory hijab laws. In Sudan, mass sexual violence has been documented as a tool of war. In Gaza, women endure bombardment, displacement, and hunger. In countless contexts, women activists and humanitarian workers are being silenced, punished, and killed.

This is not a coincidence. This is a global backlash against women’s rights — a coordinated effort to reassert patriarchal control, to silence women, to push us out of public life and back into submission.

How can we “commemorate” all this?!

Actually, we do. In the U.S., Women’s Equality Day is marked with presidential proclamations, commemorative events, museum exhibits, and symbolic gestures. Across workplaces and social media, we see hashtags, campaigns, and curated lists of “inspiring women.” And even some sales on “women’s products.”

But commemoration without action is hollow.

We cannot let Women’s Equality Day become a day of platitudes and pink-washed slogans. This day must be a political reminder — not a corporate campaign. It must be a rallying cry for resistance, resilience, and real reform.

Globally, some activists mark the day with marches, campaigns, workshops, and calls for accountability. Some women-led organizations use the day to highlight ongoing injustices: reproductive rights battles in the U.S., education bans in Afghanistan, violence in conflict zones, wage inequality everywhere. The power of the day lies in its ability to galvanize action — not just to celebrate history.

The question is always: what next? What can we, as individuals and communities, do to turn Women’s Equality Day from a symbolic date into a catalyst for change?

Here are 10 actions:

1. Learn the history — Recognize the victories and exclusions of the suffrage movement. Know whose shoulders we stand on, and whose struggles were left behind.
2. Name the rollback — Say it clearly: women’s rights are being dismantled in the U.S. and around the world. Don’t let silence normalize regression.
3. Support women-led organizations — Globally and locally. Donate, volunteer, and amplify. Women-led movements are underfunded yet will always be the most effective.
4. Use your voice — online and offline — Share stories, not just slogans. Speak up in your communities, schools, workplaces, and networks.
5. Push for policy change — Demand reproductive rights, equal pay, paid parental leave, protections against harassment and violence. Call your representatives. Vote. Organize.
6. Act in your workplace — Push for pay transparency. Confront harassment. Mentor women colleagues. Don’t let inequality fester in silence.
7. Elevate women’s voices — Read women authors, cite women scholars, hire women experts, follow women journalists. Culture shapes politics.
8. Have the hard conversations — Bring gender equality into your family discussions, classrooms, faith spaces, and community groups. Normalize it everywhere.
9. Think globally — Stand in solidarity with women in Afghanistan, Iran, Sudan, Palestine, Ukraine, and beyond. Their fight is ours.
10. Make it daily, not annual — Don’t relegate women’s rights to August 26. This must be our work every day.

Women’s Equality Day is not about nostalgia for our incomplete past. It must be a call to action for our dangerous present and fractured future. This is not the time for complacency. This is the time for courage. For persistence. For rising together.

Why? Because every woman deserves to walk safely in the street. Every woman deserves to have full control over her body. Every girl deserves to go to school. Every woman deserves to have equal pay, equal power, and equal voice. And so much more…

Until then, there’s no equality.

There’s a global fight for freedom happening right now — and you don’t want to miss it.

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