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House Passes Bill
to Honor Woman Suffragist Leader Alice Paul with
the Congressional Gold Medal
Statement
of NOW President Kim Gandy
May 15, 2008
Today the House
of Representatives recognized Alice Paul for her
role in winning women's suffrage by passing
legislation to award her the Congressional Gold
Medal. Paul was one of the leading figures
responsible for the passage of the 19th
Amendment that gave women the right to vote and
penned the early version of the
Equal Rights
Amendment that would enshrine
women in the Constitution. This long overdue
honor recognizes Alice Paul as one of the great
women in history for her work to promote women's
rights, freedom and equality.
The National
Organization for Women salutes the work of
Representative Joe Baca (D-Calif.) as he
gathered 412 bipartisan sponsors for
H.R. 406.
The House passage of the bill is the first step
toward honoring Alice Paul with a Congressional
Gold Medal. We will be working with the bill's
counterpart in the Senate, sponsored by Sen.
Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), with the goal of
having the Gold Medal award posthumously to
feminist heroine Alice Paul.
It was because of
women like Alice Paul, who dedicated her life to
the women's movement, that organizations like
NOW have been able to be legitimate and
pertinent forces in politics and in our culture
today. It was only 89 years ago that women had
no voting rights, little power, and married
women had no separate legal status.
With the help of
Paul and her tenacity to do what was right,
women now can not only vote, but own homes, run
businesses, play sports, be a U.S. senator, or
become the first women president.
To honor Paul is
to honor her life and work. She was the author
of the Equal Rights Amendment, founder of the
National Women's Party, and a lifelong activist
for women's equality. Paul fought tirelessly to
ratify the Equal Rights Amendment until her
death in 1977, and though the ERA is still not
in the Constitution, Paul's legacy continues
today
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