Women's Equality Day, 2000

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Title 3--
The President

Proclamation 7334 of August 26, 2000

Women's Equality Day, 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 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.