The United States currently celebrates 11 permanent legal public holidays, if you include the quadrennial celebration of Inauguration Day. None of these holidays was created to celebrate women's achievements (not even Labor Day, which was designated a federal holiday in 1894, when less than 20% of the workforce was female).
With the investiture of a record number of women serving in the 117th Congress and the country's first female vice president, there is no better time to cement our recognition of female achievement in the federal calendar than now.
Past efforts to acknowledge women's contributions to the country have fallen embarrassingly short. To date, the most significant federal act recognizing women has been President Richard Nixon's 1972 "proclamation" at the request of Congress of "Women's Rights Day," following the famous Women's Strike for Equality. In close second is the congressional designation in 1981, and subsequent presidential proclamations, declaring a "Women's History Week" and eventually designating the month of March as "Women's History Month" to broadly celebrate achievements of women in U.S. history.
That was 40 years ago. Since then, neither Congress nor the president has expressed interest in granting women their own public holiday. Legislators have instead on rare occasion sought smaller wins for women — repurposing already-designated holidays or asking for additional proclamations.
These small attempts to honor women have gone nowhere. In 1993, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., presented legislation requesting the president to issue a proclamation commemorating International Women's Day. It died in committee. In 2007, 2009 and 2011, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., presented similar legislation asking for Susan B. Anthony to be added to the list of individuals whose birthdays are celebrated on Presidents Day. That legislation also died in committee.
Even when they succeed, these half measures, such as "Women's History Month" and "Women's Rights Day," lack the national recognition, reflection and respect of a permanent federal holiday. Public holidays are literally etched in Americans' psyche, appearing on published calendars everywhere. They allow 2.1 million federal employees and several million others whose offices follow the federal calendar, to spend time with their loved ones and, one hopes, take a moment to think about the reasons for that reprieve.
Federal public holidays also project our values to foreign allies, letting them know those causes most important to us. The United States holds itself out as a beacon of equality and democracy. If the rest of the world is to believe this, the U.S. must practice what it preaches.
But perhaps most simply, women have earned a federal holiday. Women have contributed to the national defense effort during every major war, helped expand our economy and advanced our nation's literary and artistic heritage. Their contributions have been doubly commendable because they have made these strides while fighting to secure equal rights under the law and equal stature in the eyes of their male peers. All Americans, regardless of gender, should recognize, support and cherish that shared history.
