Bella Abzug introduced the bill that established the day
On Aug. 26, 1970, 50,000 women marched down New York City’s Fifth Avenue in an undeniable display of the strength of second-wave feminism. They were celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which granted American women the right to vote, but they were also protesting the limits and expectations placed on American womanhood, demanding changes to childcare and abortion policies and education and employment opportunities. Many abandoned their usual
domestic duties for the day, with spiritual sisters across the country staging sit-ins and takeovers of all-male bars.
One year to the day after the Women’s Strike for Equality March, Congress passed a resolution designating Aug. 26 as Women’s Equality Day, and 45 years later, the day continues to be a moment to reckon with how far women’s rights have come, and how far they have yet to go.
Though in truth there are many women to thank for establishing Women’s Equality Day—dating back to the suffragists who gathered at Seneca Falls in 1848—the woman most directly responsible was Congresswoman Bella Abzug, a Democrat from New York, who introduced the bill that would formally establish the day of recognition.
Source: TIME