[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 42 (Monday, October 20, 1997)]
[Pages 1591-1592]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7041--International Rural Women's Day, 1997

October 15, 1997

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    Our world has been continually uplifted and renewed by the 
contributions of women. Women of courage and conscience, women of 
strength and compassion, women of vision and talent have enriched every 
aspect of international society. In our own Nation, the names of such 
extraordinary individuals as Harriet Tubman, Susan B. Anthony, Jane 
Addams, Rosa Parks, Dolores Huerta, and so many more, are etched on our 
history and in our hearts. But there are millions of other women who 
live and work among us whose names will never be known, but whose 
efforts and energy contribute profoundly to the quality of our lives. 
Rural women are numbered among these many quiet heroes.
    Today rural women comprise more than one-quarter of the world's 
population, and they form the basis of much of the world's agricultural 
economy. In the United States, working on farms and ranches, they play a 
vital part in ensuring a healthy, safe, and abundant supply of food and 
fiber for our people. In developing countries, as small farmers, 
laborers, and entrepreneurs, rural women help produce most of the food, 
create many of the jobs, and manage most of their countries' natural 
resources. While millions of rural women worldwide live below the 
poverty level, struggling to survive with scarce resources and little 
training and education, they still manage to feed their families and 
contribute to their communities.

[[Page 1592]]

    When the international community came together in Beijing in 1995 
for the Fourth United Nations World Conference on Women, rural women 
made their voices heard by world leaders, and their hard work and 
sacrifice were at last recognized by people across the globe. Next year, 
when the United States hosts the Second World Conference on Women in 
Agriculture, we will continue to focus on the status of rural women and 
their contributions to our world.
    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 October 
15, 1997, as International Rural Women's Day in the United States. I 
call upon the American people to observe this day with appropriate 
programs and activities in recognition of the extraordinary 
contributions rural women make to the quality of our lives, both in 
America and around the world.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day 
of October, 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, 11:12 a.m., October 16, 
1997]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on October 
17.