[United States Statutes at Large, Volume 123, 111th Congress, 1st Session]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

 
PROCLAMATION 8402--AUG. 25, 2009

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

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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 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.
BARACK OBAMA