Local Women’s Equality Day Celebration To Be Held At The Gallery Shop, Sponsored By Several Local Women’s Organizations

Women’s Equality Day 2022 will be celebrated in Garrett County this year with an art exhibit at The Gallery
Shop in Oakland the week of August 24-August 31 and a special event on Friday, August 26, the day of the
national recognition of Women’s Equality Day. The celebration this year is being coordinated by the
AAUW-Garrett Branch, the Garrett County Commission for Women, and the Garrett County Democratic
Women of the GC Democratic Club. It is part of a state-wide celebration of this nationally recognized event.

Last year, the three groups were part of a larger coalition that marked the celebration of the 100th year
anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment granting women the constitutional right to vote. The
2021 theme was “Hard Won…Not Done”, focusing on the “Hard Won” fight for women’s suffrage. This
year’s Women’s Equality Day Celebration continues this theme, focusing on the fact that realizing and
enshrining gender equality is “Not Done”.

The 19th Amendment was ratified by the last of the required states on August 18, 1920, but the amendment
was not certified as part of the U.S. Constitution until August 26, 1920, with the signature of the U.S.
Secretary of State, the person then designated to certify a new amendment. Fifty years later, in 1971,
Representative Bella Abzug championed a bill in the U.S. Congress to designate August 26 as “Women’s
Equality Day.” The bill says that “the President is authorized and requested to issue a proclamation
annually in commemoration of that day in 1920, on which the women of America were first given the right
to vote.” It has been commemorated every year since. This year is the second consecutive celebration of
Women’s Equality Day in Garrett County.

The local celebration begins on Wednesday, August 24, with the opening of a special exhibit at the Garrett
County Arts Council’s The Gallery Shop, located at 108 S. 2nd Street, Oakland, MD. The art exhibit has been
developed by celebration partner VoteEquality who describes the vision of the art exhibit in this way:
“Through partnerships with well-known artists, this project depicts diverse groups and communities,
including LGBTQIA+, Black women, women of color, Indigenous peoples, and young people, to help them
see themselves in the struggle for equal rights in the Constitution. The art created for the project will
financially support VoteEquality’s work to ensure gender equality is part of our Constitution through online
and live releases of limited edition, signed ERA art prints.

According to the Vote Equality website: “The first live public art exhibit of this artwork was held in
Oakland, CA on March 19, 2022, and now the collection is on the move at events and showings
across the country. The art will also give people the tools to advocate for the ERA across social platforms; it
will be used for peer-to-peer content ensuring that the ERA is front and center in everyday conversations,
street art, texts, TikToks, Instagram Stories and more. Each event will highlight the artists and include an
auction of original art to benefit the grassroots efforts to add the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to our
Constitution. Additionally, limited edition, signed ERA art prints from Artists 4 ERA are available through
an online release.”

Says Judy Carbone, President of AAUW-Garrett Branch and chair of the coordinating committee, “the
exhibit was first shown in Oakland, CA, and we are thrilled that it will now be available in Oakland, MD.
There is so much to learn about the continuing effort to gain full gender equality. After the certification of
the 19th Amendment in 1920, Alice Paul knew that the amendment wasn’t sufficient to ensure full equality
for women, so she wrote the original draft of the Equal Rights Amendment. It was first introduced in
Congress in 1923. That was almost 100 years ago! 75% of Americans support the Equal Rights
Amendment as part of our U.S. Constitution…almost as many of them (72%) believe that it already has been
certified. It has not. And there are so many reasons why it should be. This exhibit celebrates gender
equality guaranteed by the ERA and provides information on why it is necessary. There is still much work
to be done to see that our children and grand-children always have full gender equality.”

The poster art exhibit is open at The Gallery Shop every day (except Sunday) 10:00 AM-5:00 PM, August
24-August 31, 2022.

A “Hard Won, Not Done” reception will be held in the space where the poster art is exhibited from 5:00 PM-
7:00 PM on Friday, August 26, the day Women’s Equality Day is recognized nationally. During this event,
which is free and open to everyone, there will be opportunities to see and bid on the art, purchase raffle
tickets for some of the posters and other items, food and beverages, information tables from the sponsoring
organizations, and two panels of local women talking about their own experiences with gender equality
and/or inequality. The first panel will be comprised of women students and the other will be of local
women who are in the first part of their careers. A question-and-answer period will follow the panels, and
the organizers hope that good, respectfully discussion will be held by all in attendance.

Each participating organization will have a table at which information will be provided on the group’s
goals, programs, and community outreach, and giving attendees information on various aspects of women’s
equality that affect local women. AAUW-Garrett Branch will provide information on gender pay gap and
the effects of that gap on women throughout their lives. The Garrett County Democratic Women will be
providing additional information on the Equal Rights Amendment and how advocates, regardless of
political affiliation, can make their voices heard. The Garrett County Commission for Women will be
staffing a table to collect feedback from local women on issues they face.

The VoteEquality table will be providing information on voting for those who support gender equality as
well as some fun items to take home. Says Kati Hornug, Executive Director of VoteEquality, “our work is
nonpartisan and a grassroots effort promoting Equal Rights for all Americans. From the start, support for
the Equal Rights Amendment and gender equality has been bipartisan, just as it is today. Both the current
U.S. House of Representatives and Senate deadline elimination resolutions have Democratic sponsors with
Republican lead co-sponsors.” Proceeds from the artwork sold at the special event will go to support
VoteEquality.

A poster unique to the Garrett County recognition of Women’s Equality Day, designed by AAUW-Garrett
Branch Vice-President Kendall Ludwig and her associate Olivia Weeks, both of CurlyRed, will be exhibited
and raffled off. Proceeds from its sale will go to support AAUW-Garrett Branch.

For more information on the 2022 Women’s Equality Day Celebration in Garrett County, isit the Facebook
page at https://www.facebook.com/events/2907828909519218?ref=newsfeed. Each of the sponsoring
organizations also have Facebook pages, as does Women’s Equality Day Celebration Across Maryland.