Women's Equality Day, 1999

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Title 3--
The President

Proclamation 7215 of August 24, 1999

Women's Equality Day, 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--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.