President Harding Promises to Act on Women’s Equality
President Warren G. Harding on this day met in the White House with 60 representatives of the National Woman’s Party (NWP), and promised that he would work toward legislation guaranteeing equality for women.
The NWP sponsored a bill, now before Congress, that would ensure equal treatment of women in all federal laws. Harding was very gracious and shook hands with each of the 60 NWP delegates. He did not, however, follow through on his promise to pursue women’s equality.
Two years later, on July 21, 1923, Alice Paul, leader of the National Woman’s Party, introduced a proposed amendment to the Constitution, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which would guarantee equality for women.
Read: Christine A. Lunardini, From Equal Suffrage to Equal Rights: Alice Paul and the National Woman’s Party, 1910–1928 (1986)
Learn more about the ERA: http://www.equalrightsamendment.org/
See a chronology of the National Woman’s Party history: http://www.loc.gov/collections/static/women-of-protest/images/detchron.pdf
Visit the National Woman’s Party Museum in Washington, DC: http://www.sewallbelmont.org/