Honoring National Women's Equality Day

Elmira, NY (08/27/2018) — Yesterday, August 26 marked the annual observation of National Women's Equality Day. In 1973, Congress designated that August 26 would, from then on, be a day to celebrate the passage of the 19th Amendment, giving women equal rights to vote.

Elmira College was founded in 1855 - a time when ideas about human rights and opportunity permeated much of the thinking in Upstate New York. The College was the first college founded to offer women a course of study equal in rigor to the top men's colleges of the time, and has a rich history in connection to women's rights and women's suffrage.

Documentented in the writings of Elmira College publications, Sybil, The Lepidotus, and the Elmira College Weekly, the women of EC held women's rights dear to their hearts. Letters, stories and pictures portraying the fight for women's rights were distributed across campus, while suffragist events were held on campus.

In October of 1915, the women of Elmira College held their own suffrage night, drumming up support across campus and the outside community. Modeled after the Seneca Falls convention, the students discussed and pushed their agenda to enlighten and generate support for the cause. Their efforts continued for years, until the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920.

In addition to supporting suffrage efforts, the College was home to important suffrage figures including graduates Mary Grey Peck, a secretary of leading suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt, and Alice Robertson (pictured on the right in the photo above), the first-elected congresswoman after the passage of the 19th amendment.

Today, National Women's Equality Day continues in the same spirit as our suffragist alumnae, and we celebrate the continued efforts to ensure women's equality.

View the digital archive of Elmira College's connection to the women's rights movement online.

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