[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 167 (Wednesday, August 30, 2023)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 59787-59788]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-18883]


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  Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 167 / Wednesday, August 30, 2023 / 
Presidential Documents  

[[Page 59787]]


                Proclamation 10609 of August 25, 2023

                
Women's Equality Day, 2023

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                America is the only Nation in the world based on an 
                idea--the idea that all people are created equal and 
                deserve to be treated equally throughout their lives. 
                We have never fully lived up to that idea, but we have 
                never walked away from it either. On Women's Equality 
                Day, we honor the pioneering suffragists who persisted 
                through decades of struggle to finally win American 
                women the right to vote, and we celebrate the advocates 
                and everyday heroes who have continued the long march 
                for equality ever since. On this day, we recommit to 
                delivering a better future for all of America's 
                daughters and for our Nation.

                The 19th Amendment was certified 103 years ago, but 
                more remained to be done--especially for women of 
                color, many of whom fought for the right to vote for 
                another four decades until the Voting Rights Act passed 
                in 1965. Today, women still face discrimination and 
                threats to their health and safety, as well as gaps in 
                pay, access to health care, and caregiving 
                responsibilities. These gaps are often even greater for 
                women and girls of color. Last year, the Supreme Court 
                overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating a woman's 
                constitutional right to make fundamental decisions 
                about her own body and putting women's health and lives 
                at risk. And we are facing new efforts to suppress the 
                fundamental right to vote and undermine our democracy.

                My Administration is committed to realizing the promise 
                of the suffragists, who knew that equality begins at 
                the ballot box and requires women to have a seat at the 
                table. That is why we will keep fighting to pass the 
                John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to restore and 
                strengthen the Voting Rights Act and the Freedom to 
                Vote Act to ensure fair Congressional maps give all 
                Americans an equal chance to be heard. It is also why I 
                have delivered on my promise to build an Administration 
                that looks like America--with courageous leaders like 
                Vice President Kamala Harris and the record number of 
                women who serve in our Nation's first gender-equal 
                Cabinet leading the way. I have also appointed more 
                Black women to Federal appellate courts--including the 
                first Black woman on the Supreme Court, Justice Ketanji 
                Brown Jackson--than all prior Presidents combined. And 
                I established the White House Gender Policy Council to 
                advance gender equity and equality across all domestic 
                and foreign policy.

                Equality also means ensuring women's economic 
                security--and I am pleased that a majority of the 
                record 13 million jobs we have added to our economy 
                since I took office are held by women. We are working 
                to ensure women have access to opportunities in sectors 
                like manufacturing and construction, where women have 
                long been underrepresented. I also signed an Executive 
                Order to eliminate discriminatory pay practices and 
                advance pay equity. I have fought for safe and healthy 
                workplaces, including by signing into law long-overdue 
                protections for pregnant, postpartum, and nursing 
                workers. I signed an Executive Order with the most 
                comprehensive set of actions ever to support caregivers 
                and expand child- and long-term care, and we have made 
                other historic investments in affordable child care 
                while requiring firms that receive significant Federal 
                dollars to ensure that high-quality

[[Page 59788]]

                child care is available so parents can actually take 
                the new jobs that we are creating.

                We have to ensure women's physical safety as well. As a 
                United States Senator, I wrote the Violence Against 
                Women Act to not only change the laws but also the 
                culture that had allowed the scourge of domestic 
                violence, sexual assault, and other forms of gender-
                based violence to persist in America. As Vice President 
                and now as President, I have worked to reauthorize and 
                strengthen that law, improving law enforcement 
                training, increasing support for survivors, addressing 
                online harassment and abuse, expanding services for 
                LGBTQI+ survivors, and more. I have also pushed to 
                improve our military justice system, signing into law 
                and implementing bipartisan reforms to better prevent 
                and respond to sexual assault, sexual harassment, and 
                domestic violence in the Armed Forces.

                This year, we also mark the 100th anniversary of the 
                introduction of the Equal Rights Amendment. It is long 
                past time to definitively enshrine the principle of 
                gender equality in the Constitution, and I will 
                continue to fight for the Equal Rights Amendment as I 
                have throughout my career. Together we can and must 
                build a future where our daughters have all the same 
                rights and opportunities as our sons, where all women 
                and girls have a chance to realize their God-given 
                potential, and where we can finally realize the full 
                promise of America for all Americans. May we be a 
                Nation worthy of the abilities and ambitions of our 
                women and girls.

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of 
                the United States of America, by virtue of the 
                authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws 
                of the United States, do hereby proclaim August 26, 
                2023, as Women's Equality Day. I call upon the people 
                of the United States to celebrate and continue to build 
                on our country's progress toward gender equality and to 
                defend and strengthen the right to vote.

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

[FR Doc. 2023-18883
Filed 8-29-23; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3395-F3-P