[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 104 (Wednesday, July 27, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1632-E1633]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  EXPRESSING SENSE OF CONGRESS WITH RESPECT TO COMMEMORATION OF WOMEN 
                              SUFFRAGISTS

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. CAROLYN B. MALONEY

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, July 25, 2005

  Mrs. MALONEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.J. Res. 59, 
to Establish Women's Suffrage Commemoration Day.
  With this Commemoration Day, we pay tribute to our foremothers, who 
worked tirelessly for generations to gain the right to vote.
  We acknowledge that the journey to equality is long and difficult, 
but it is well worth the fight.
  And we pledge to keep the struggle for women's rights alive.
  The journey towards women's rights in America is as old as our 
country itself. While John Adams drafted the Constitution at the 
Continental Congress, his wife counseled, ``Remember the ladies,'' but 
the Constitution made no mention of women's rights.
  So our foremothers fought on.
  Elizabeth Cady Stanton declared that all men and women are created 
equal.
  Susan B. Anthony was arrested for casting a ballot and refused to pay 
the bail.
  Between 1917 and 1919, over a thousand women held a vigil outside of 
the White House, asking, ``How long must women wait for liberty?''
  Finally, in 1920, with the 19th Amendment, women won the right to 
participate in our democratic process.
  As we remember the long and arduous battle for women's suffrage, let 
us also remember the right not yet won. 157 years ago, Elizabeth Cady 
Stanton called for equal rights for all Americans. It is time for our 
Constitution to echo that sentiment. There is no better tribute to our 
brave foremothers than to pass the Equal Rights Amendment.
  Only the ERA can prevent women's rights from being rolled back. 
Afghanistan, Bosnia

[[Page E1633]]

and Herzegovina, Finland, Austria, and Portugal are just a handful of 
the countries that already guarantee non-discrimination based on sex in 
their constitutions. It is time we join their ranks.
  Alice Paul used to say, ``When you put your hand to the plow, you 
can't put it down until you get to the end of the row.''
  For Alice and Elizabeth, for Sojourner and Lucretia, for our 
foremothers, our grandmothers and our daughters, let us put our hands 
to the plow and pass the ERA.

                          ____________________