Today is Women’s Equality Day in America. A day that celebrates the important milestones in equal rights women have achieved in the U.S. throughout the years – starting with the right to vote. August 26, 2015 marks the 95th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment – giving women in the United States the right to vote.
For nearly the first 150 years of America’s history, women were forced to live in a country where they had no voice in the political arena that governed their lives. The success of the Women’s Suffrage Movement was a major victory for women in the U.S., but the work towards equality didn’t end there. Obtaining the right to vote was the first important step. It gave women a voice in the political arena that shapes their world. It gave women a tool to rectify inequalities elsewhere in their life.
Thanks to this powerful tool, women have managed to make more strides to lessen the equality gap in compensation, education and other personal and professional advancements in less than a decade than in the nearly 150 years prior to the 19th amendment.
In 1962, nearly 42 years after women earned the right to vote in the US, women in Uganda earned that same right. Politically and culturally, women in Uganda face a much harder battle than women in the U.S. Women are constantly being challenged with issues such as discrimination, low social status, male dominance, lack of financial independence and self sufficiency economic, lack of voice in their homes… the list goes on.
Since Ugandan women have gained the right to vote, their battle to achieve equality has been slow but sure. While they certainly still have a long way to go, if the success of America’s suffrage movement has anything to show – it’s that giving women a voice in their government is a powerful first step to closing the gender equality gap.
It is our hope that through education and providing young women with the power to be self-sufficient, we can empower the next generation of women voters to help advance gender equality in their nation.
Here’s to celebrating women’s rights around the world.
With peace and love,
Cristen
