[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 34 (Monday, August 30, 1999)]
[Pages 1661-1662]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7215--Women's Equality Day, 1999

August 24, 1999

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    The theme for America's celebration of the coming millennium is 
``honor the past--

[[Page 1662]]

imagine the future,'' a theme that could also describe our annual 
observance of Women's Equality Day. On this special day, we honor the 
past by remembering the decades-long struggle of visionary and 
determined women and men who fought for women's suffrage. Seventy-nine 
years ago, their efforts were rewarded with the ratification of the 19th 
Amendment to the Constitution, which guaranteed women the right to vote 
and moved our Nation forward on the path toward equal civil and 
political rights for all Americans.
    This year we also mark the 35th anniversary of another hard-fought 
victory for women's equality: the enactment of Title VII of the Civil 
Rights Act of 1964, which--among other things--prohibits employment 
discrimination on the basis of gender. Title VII guarantees women equal 
access to jobs, promotions, pay, and benefits, empowering them to 
provide for themselves and their families and to achieve their highest 
aspirations. This historic legislation benefits our entire Nation by 
strengthening America's workforce and economy through the contributions 
of millions of Americans whose talents in the past had too often been 
ignored or excluded.
    We also celebrate Women's Equality Day by imagining the future--a 
future where women will receive equal pay for equal work, where our 
social structures will help women and men to balance better the 
responsibilities of job and family, where there will be no ceilings to 
prevent women from rising as far and as fast as their talents will take 
them. Such a future seems possible when we reflect on the extraordinary 
feats women have achieved this summer alone. The entire world was 
captivated by the energy, skill, teamwork, and determination of the 
women soccer players from around the globe who competed in the Women's 
World Cup; and all America rejoiced when the U.S. team won a 
breathtaking victory. Just 13 days later, Air Force Colonel Eileen 
Collins, commander of Space Shuttle Mission STS-93, became the first 
woman to command a mission in space.
    With a rich past, an exciting present, and a future of limitless 
possibilities, women have much to celebrate on this Women's Equality 
Day, and all Americans have much to be grateful for as we reflect on the 
countless contributions women make to the quality of our lives and the 
well-being of our Nation.
    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, 1999, 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 twenty-fourth 
day of August, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-nine, 
and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred 
and twenty-fourth.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., August 26, 
1999]

Note: This proclamation was released by the Office of the Press 
Secretary on August 25, and it was published in the Federal Register on 
August 27.