Over the last half century, social scientists have noticed dramatic changes in gender equality that they nicknamed “gender revolution”. Men’s participation in household and family care responsibilities increased and more and more women are seen to actively enter the labor force. Things were totally different a century ago.

Women were once housewives and men breadwinners. Women were entitled to less consideration than men and continuously faced discrimination. It was in 1920 that everything turned upside down. That year depicts the unique momentum for women in standing up for their rights and engaging in a long-lasting fight for equality.

Women’s fight for the right to vote as a starting point.

The fierce battle of women for equal rights goes back a long way. A look back at history shows that women have made great accomplishments in the fight for equality, including women’s suffrage and breakthroughs in equal opportunity in the workplace and education. Passed by the Congress on June 4th, 1919, and ratified on August 18th, 1920, the 19th Amendment granted women the right to vote, which was the culmination of a decades-long movement for women’s suffrage in the United States. Recognized at both state and national levels, the amendment paved the way to a worldwide movement towards women’s suffrage and was part of the wider women’s rights movement.

The first women’s suffrage amendment was told to have been introduced in 1878. Yet, no suffrage amendment passed the House of Representatives until May 1st, 1919, which was quickly followed by the Senate, on June 4th, 1919. Shortly after, it was submitted to the states for ratification and went into effect on August 18th, 1919 after achieving the requisite 36 ratifications to secure adoption. It was, then, on August 26th, 1920, that the 19th Amendment’s adoption was certified and introduced into the U.S. Constitution.

In 1970, following the Women’s Strike for Equality on August 26th, 1970, during the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment, a resolution was introduced to designate August 26th as Women’s Equality Day. It was in 1972 that President Richard Nixon issued Proclamation 4147, officially declared the date as “Women’s Rights Day”. Since then, August 26th is annually celebrated in the U.S. to commemorate the adoption of the 19th Amendment, and last year marked its centennial anniversary, guaranteeing and protecting women’s constitutional right to vote.

Today’s gender equality in the U.S.

The 21st century turns out to be a watershed era for women. The hard and ongoing fight of women for gender equality over these three centuries led to what searchers called “gender revolution”, pushing women to actively participate in the development of a nation. Contrary to popular beliefs and previous perception on how women were only made for home, the number of women in the workforce has now intriguingly increased. According to the 2015 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, women comprised nearly half of the U.S. labor force at 46.8 percent. In 2019, there were 76,852,000 women aged 16 and over in the labor force, representing close to half of the total labor force.

Nevertheless, despite the astounding progress made in the fight for equal rights and opportunity, women still face today violence and discrimination, and gender bias continues to create huge barriers for many women.

Sources: We’re history / American Civil Liberties Union / National Women’s History Alliance.