[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 34 (Monday, August 25, 1997)]
[Pages 1258-1259]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7017--Women's Equality Day, 1997

August 19, 1997

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    Each year, on Women's Equality Day, we reflect on how far we have 
traveled on our journey to make America live up to the ideals of justice 
and equality articulated so powerfully in the Declaration of 
Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Few 
constitutional amendments have affected that progress more profoundly 
than the 19th, which guarantees American women the right to vote.
    Looking back from today's vantage point, where women hold positions 
of authority and responsibility at almost every level of government, it 
is hard to imagine that, for almost

[[Page 1259]]

a century and a half, women were barred from exercising the most 
fundamental right of every democracy. There are women still living among 
us who can remember a time when they were prevented, by law, from having 
a role in shaping the destiny of their country and the impact of 
government on their own and their families' lives. But thanks to women 
and men of extraordinary courage and conviction, who waged for years a 
determined campaign for women's suffrage, the 19th Amendment was 
ratified in August of 1920 and opened the door for generations of 
American women to add their vision and voices to our national discourse.
    This year, we mark another milestone in the life of our democracy: 
the 25th anniversary of the enactment of Title IX of the Education 
Amendments of 1972. Title IX, building on the spirit of the 19th 
Amendment, prohibits discrimination against women in education and 
sports programs. For a quarter-century, it has enabled American girls 
and women to make the most of their abilities, to dream big dreams, and, 
more important, to achieve those dreams. In large measure, because of 
the 19th Amendment and Title IX, our Nation has reaped the rewards of 
women's talents, accomplishments, wisdom, and perspective. In every 
activity and profession, in the home and outside--as astronauts and 
professional athletes, as teachers and university presidents, as farmers 
and firefighters, as caregivers, Cabinet members, and Supreme Court 
Justices--women have made lasting contributions to the quality of our 
lives and the strength of our democracy.
    Today, as Americans engage in a serious and profoundly important 
dialogue on the future of our multiracial, multiethnic, multicultural 
society, we do well to remember that we are all immeasurably enriched 
when we choose the path of inclusion and empowerment. Women's Equality 
Day and the anniversary of Title IX remind us that by demanding an equal 
opportunity for every American, we ensure a brighter future for all 
Americans.
    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, 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, 1997, as Women's Equality Day. I call upon the citizens of our great 
Nation to observe this day with appropriate programs and activities.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this nineteenth day 
of August, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-seven, 
and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred 
and twenty-second.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:16 a.m., August 20, 
1997]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on August 
21.