    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 35 (Monday, September 4, 2000)]
    [Pages 1953-1954]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Proclamation 7334--Women's Equality Day, 2000

    August 26, 2000

    By the President of the United States

    of America

    A Proclamation

        In March of 1776, 4 months before the signing of the Declaration of
    Independence, Abigail Adams sent a letter to her husband John in
    Philadelphia, where he was participating in the Second Continental
    Congress. ``...[I]n the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be
    necessary for you to make,'' she wrote, ``I desire you would Remember
    the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your
    ancestors.'' Almost a century and a half would pass before her desire
    was realized with the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the
    Constitution, guaranteeing women's suffrage.
        The road to civic, economic, and social equality for women in our
    Nation has been long and arduous, marked by frustrations and setbacks,
    yet inspired by the courageous actions of many heroic Americans, women
    and men alike. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner
    Truth, Lucretia Mott, Frederick Douglass, Lucy Stone--these and so many
    others refused to remain silent in the face of injustice. Speaking out
    at rallies, circulating pamphlets and petitions, lobbying State
    legislatures, risking public humiliation and even incarceration,
    suffragists slowly changed the minds of their fellow Americans and the
    laws of our Nation.Thanks to their efforts, by the mid-19th century some
    States recognized the right of women to own property and to sign
    contracts independent of their spouses. In 1890, Wyoming became the
    first State to recognize a woman's right to vote. Thirty years later,
    the 19th Amendment made women's suffrage the law of the land. But it
    would take another 40 years to pass the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which
    promised women the same salary for performing the same jobs as men, and
    the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed employment discrimination
    based on gender. Another 8 years would pass before Title IX of the
    Education Amendments of 1972 assured American women equal opportunity in
    education and sports programs.
        However, the promise of true equality has yet to be realized.
    Despite historic changes in laws and attitudes, a significant wage gap
    between men and women persists, in traditional sectors as well as in
    emerging fields, such as information technology. While employment of
    computer scientists, programmers, and operators has increased at a
    breathtaking rate--by 80 percent since 1983--fewer than one in three of
    these high-wage jobs is filled by a woman. A recent report by the
    Council of Economic Advisers noted that, even after allowing for
    differences in education, age, and occupation, the wage gap between men
    and women in high-technology professions is still approximately 12
    percent--a gap similar to that estimated in the labor market at large--
    and that, in both the old economy and the new, the gap is even wider for
    women of color.
        To combat unfair pay practices and to close the wage gap between men
    and women once and for all, I have called on the Congress to support my
    Administration's Equal Pay Initiative and to pass the Paycheck Fairness
    Act. And in May of this year, I announced the creation of a new Equal
    Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Equal Pay Task Force to empower
    EEOC field staff with the legal, technical, and investigatory support
    they need to pursue charges of pay discrimination and to take
    appropriate action whenever such discrimination occurs. I have also
    proposed in my fiscal 2001 budget an initiative under which the National
    Science Foundation will provide $20 million in grants to postsecondary
    institutions and other organizations to promote the full participation
    of women in the science and technology fields.
        Today, a new century lies before us, offering us a fresh opportunity
    to make real the promise that Abigail Adams dreamed of more than two
    centuries ago. As we celebrate

    [[Page 1954]]

    Women's Equality Day and the 80th anniversary of the ratification of the
    19th Amendment, let us keep faith with our mothers, wives, sisters, and
    daughters by removing any lingering barriers in their path to true
    equality.
        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, 2000, 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-sixth
    day of August, in the year of our Lord two thousand, and of the
    Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-
    fifth.
                                                William J. Clinton

     [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., August 29,
    2000]

     Note:  This proclamation was published in the  Federal Register  on
    August 30.