[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 166 (Friday, August 28, 2009)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 44721-44722]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-21015]



[[Page 44719]]

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Part VI





The President





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Proclamation 8402--Women's Equality Day, 2009
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  Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 166 / Friday, August 28, 2009 / 
Presidential Documents  

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 Title 3--
 The President

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                Proclamation 8402 of August 25, 2009

                
Women's Equality Day, 2009

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                Today, our country renews its commitment to freedom and 
                justice for all our citizens. As we prepare to 
                celebrate this women's day of equality, we reflect on 
                the sacrifices once made to allow women and girls the 
                basic rights and choices we freely exercise today. The 
                future we leave to our daughters and granddaughters 
                will be determined by our willingness to build on the 
                achievements of our past and move forward as one people 
                and one Nation. The fight for women's equality is not a 
                woman's agenda, but an American agenda.

                We honor the resilience, accomplishments, and history 
                of all women in the United States. We celebrate the 
                courageous women who fought to uphold a fundamental 
                principle within our Constitution--the right to vote--
                and in so doing, protected the cornerstone of our 
                vibrant democracy. These visionaries of the Seneca 
                Falls Convention of 1848 sought to ensure that our 
                country lived up to its founding ideals. Although only 
                one, Charlotte Woodward, at the age of 81, had the 
                opportunity to exercise her newfound right, the 
                struggle reminds us that no righteous cause is a lost 
                one. We also commemorate women like Frances Ellen 
                Watkins Harper, a poet and lecturer who formed the 
                National Association of Colored Women; Antonia Pantoja, 
                a tireless advocate of education equality within the 
                Latino community; Sarah Winnemucca, a voice for peace 
                within the Native American community; and Patsy Mink, 
                author of Title IX and the first woman of color and 
                Asian American woman elected to the United States 
                Congress. These women's talents, and the contributions 
                of countless others, built upon the framework of 1848 
                and forged paths for future generations.

                Our Nation has come a long way since that ground-
                breaking convention in New York. Women have occupied 
                some of the most significant positions in government. 
                They have delivered justice from the bench of our 
                highest court, fought for our country in foreign lands, 
                discovered cures to diseases, and joined the ranks of 
                the greatest business leaders of our time. Female 
                college graduates now outnumber their male 
                counterparts. Women have sought equality through 
                government, demonstrated by the signing of the Lilly 
                Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, and the establishment 
                of the White House Council on Women and Girls. They 
                have sought equality through advocacy, exemplified by 
                the efforts of thousands of women's organizations. 
                America has made significant progress toward becoming 
                the fair and just society the suffragists once 
                envisioned.

                Yet, today, our work remains unfinished. Far too many 
                adult women remain mired in poverty. Women are still 
                subject to pervasive discrimination at school and 
                harassing conduct in the workplace. Women make, on 
                average, only 78 cents for every dollar paid to men. 
                Underrepresented in many facets of our economic and 
                public life, from government to boardrooms to the 
                sciences, women have yet to eradicate all barriers to 
                professional development.

                We stand at a moment of unparalleled change and a time 
                for reflection and hope. We cannot allow the vibrant 
                energy and passionate commitment of our trailblazing 
                women to fade, and we can never forget the 
                responsibility

[[Page 44722]]

                we bear to the ideals of liberty and equality for all. 
                Each generation of successful women serves as a 
                catalyst to empower, enlighten, and educate the next 
                generation of girls and boys, and we must devote 
                ourselves to promoting this catalyst for change now and 
                in the future.

                On this Women's Equality Day, we resolve to continue 
                the important work of our Nation's foremothers and 
                their successors, and turn their vision of a more equal 
                America into our reality.

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the 
                United States of America, by virtue of the authority 
                vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United 
                States, do hereby proclaim August 26, 2009, as Women's 
                Equality Day. I call upon the people of the United 
                States to celebrate the achievements of women and 
                recommit themselves to the goal of true gender equality 
                in this country.

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                twenty-fifth day of August, in the year of our Lord two 
                thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United 
                States of America the two hundred and thirty-fourth.
                
                
                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. E9-21015
Filed 8-27-09; 11:15 am]
Billing code 3195-W9-P