August 26 is our wedding anniversary together with the 100th anniversary of Women’s Equality Day. Women were not “given” the right to vote. For generations they worked, organized, marched, debated, lectured, were jailed, beaten, force fed, and organized some more. Finally, the papers documenting Tennessee’s ratification, arrived by train in Washington D.C. at 4:00 a.m. where the proclamation was signed by the U.S. Secretary of State at 8:00 a.m. Aug. 26! Burton and I were married in 1962. In our married life we have seen huge changes in women’s rights and the partnership of women and men, but there is still much to be done. We celebrate and pledge to continue to work against sexism, racism, abuse, oppression and exclusion.

For our anniversary we took our lunch to the Carrie Chapman Catt Museum farm and had a private quiet lunch on the back porch of her childhood home in the country. You see the old barn and the new wind farming today in the countryside. This leader in the long struggle for women's right to vote lived only 30 miles from Mason City where she taught, was principal and then superintendent at the age of 24.