Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 112 Part 5.djvu/1032

 112 STAT. 3790 PROCLAMATION 711&—AUG. 20, 1998 staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Colmnbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset, Sunday, August 9, 1998. I also direct that the flag shall be flown at half-staff for the same length of time at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this seventh day of August, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-third. WILLIAM J. CLINTON Proclamation 7116 of August 20, 1998 Women's Equality Day, 1998 ' By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation Since the earliest days of our democracy, Americans have taken great pride and found great purpose in our pursuit of equality. It is a right for which many have bravely struggled and the ideal that challenges us even today to build a more perfect union and to forge a futvire in which our children know no boundaries to their dreams. Each year, on Women's Equality Day, we rededicate ourselves to the piusuit of full equality for women and girls in oiu society. This year, as we reflect on the magnificent joiuney and the extraordinary heroines and heroes of the women's rights movement in America, we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the first women's rights convention, which took place in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848 and set our Nation on a course toward equality. It was at this historic gathering that pioneers such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Mary Ann McClintock, and Frederick Douglass signed the Declaration of Sentiments—^a document imequivocally affirming that all men and women are created equal. Encouraged by the truth of their convictions, these determined women and men set out to make equality for women a reality in America. In the decades following the convention at Seneca Falls, many of the rights expressed in the prophetic Declaration of Sentiments became law. The ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution secured a woman's right to vote; the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 barred employment discrimination; and the enactment of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 guaranteed equal opportunity in education and sports. This year, we recognize another milestone on the road to women's equahty: the 35th anniversary of the enactment of the Equal Pay Act, which for the first time in our Nation's history guaranteed equal pay to women who perform the same jobs as men. Only a generation ago, a woman could legally be paid less for her time and talent solely because of her gender. Today, we realize that the denial of equal pay not

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