As Women’s Equality Day Celebrated, Maloney Pushes For Amendment

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Monday is Women’s Equality Day, marking the anniversary of the August 1920 ratification of the 19th Amendment to allow women to vote. But the fight for women to be recognized as equal citizens to men is far from over,  WCBS 880′s Ginny Kosola reported.

Women’s Equality Day began in 1971 at the behest of the late Rep. Bella Abzug (D-N.Y.), an outspoken advocate for the Equal Rights Amendment, which was never adopted. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) has reintroduced the amendment.

“We will be asking all candidates for Congress and state legislatures to sign a pledge to support full constitutional equality for women,” Maloney said.

For the amendment to become law, the House and Senate must approve the legislation, the president must sign it, and at least 35 states must ratify it.

Abzug’s daughter, Liz Abzug, a professor at Columbia University and Barnard College, says many of her students don’t realize the amendment never became federal law. It was passed by Congress in 1972 but was not ratified by the required number of states by the deadline 10 years later.

“We are tired of waiting,” Abzug said. “We demand to have full equality under the United States Constitution,” she said.

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