About our Annual Women's Equality Day Forum​

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History: Women’s Equality Day recognizes the passage of the 19th Amendment extending voting rights to women in 1920. This event culminated in a 72-year, peaceful campaign that had its formal beginnings in 1848 at the world’s first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York. Even though the 19th Amendment extended voting rights to women, only white women were allowed to vote. It wasn’t until the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that all African Americans were granted the full right to vote.

 

Despite this important constitutional amendment, women in the US have continued to face various barriers based on their intersectional identities. Gender, race, socioeconomic class, sexual orientation, nationality, language, and religion are determinant factors in shaping women’s experiences, which is why it is essential for women in Greater Toledo to discuss how gender-based oppression intersects with other forms of discrimination.