On every Aug. 26, Women’s Equality Day is celebrated throughout the United States honoring the passage of the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote on Aug. 26, 1920.

“Women’s Equality Day is a big day for us. It makes us think about how far we’ve come and how much is left to do,” says Lindsay Lemmer, president of the Madison chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW). “The amount of work that needs to be done in terms of gaining equality for everyone and making sure that everybody has equal access is highlighted more now than it has been in decades. Women’s Equality Day is a time for celebration of our accomplishments, but it’s also a time to come together to plan all of the work that is left for us to do.”

Madison NOW will be celebrating Women’s Equality Day this Saturday with an event at the Rigby Pub & Grill in downtown Madison where they are hoping to see a big crowd.

Analiese Eicher

“The event is titled ‘Celebrate Voting’ and will feature nationally renowned voting rights experts Analiese Eicher of One Wisconsin Now/One Wisconsin Institute and Molly McGrath of the ACLU. They’ll discuss their work defending voting rights in Wisconsin, and then we’ll watch the suffragette film Iron Jawed Angels,” Lemmer tells Madison365.

Iron Jawed Angels tells the remarkable and little-known story of a group of passionate and dynamic young women, led by Alice Paul (Hilary Swank) and her friend Lucy Burns (Frances O’Connor), who put their lives on the line to fight for American women’s right to vote.

Eicher is the program and development director at partner organizations One Wisconsin Now and One Wisconsin Institute where she works largely on protecting the right to vote. McGrath currently works for the ACLU on defending voting rights and also served as the national campaign coordinator for the nonpartisan organization VoteRiders through the presidential election, during which time she traveled the state to help individuals secure an ID to vote.

Molly McGrath

“We thought it was important for them to be here and have them speak about the work they’ve done and what they see as potential, upcoming challenges to voter rights,” Lemmer says. “Because voting is so foundational to a democracy.”

Study after study has found that Voter ID laws affect young people of color the most.

“One of the reasons we wanted Molly and Analiese to speak was to raise awareness of the disparate impact Voter ID laws have on communities of color,” Lemmer says. “It creates an extra barrier that doesn’t impact everybody equally and it impacts certain populations throughout the state particularly people of color as well as students and the elderly. [Journalist] Ari Melber predicted that as many as 300,000 people could have been prevented from voting in the presidential election here in Wisconsin last fall.”

The National Organization for Women (NOW) is the largest organization of feminist activists in the United States. NOW has 550 chapters in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The Madison chapter of NOW has more than 300 members and is a multi-issue, multi-generational organization working to bring about increased rights and increased involvement for Wisconsin women.

Madison chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) marches at last weekend’s Gay Pride Parade in downtown Madison.

“We focus on issues of inequality, women’s issues, discrimination … with an intersectional lens,” Lemmer says. “We’ve been very active, particularly since last November. We have a lot of great activists who are working hard to make a difference.”

Lemmer says that it is important for her organization to become more diverse. “We think it’s absolutely critical to become more diverse. It’s a priority for us. Everybody needs a seat at the table and that is something that we are working on at Madison NOW because representation makes all of the difference,” she says.

Lemmer is hoping to see a diverse crowd at Saturday’s “Women’s Equality Day: Celebrate Voting with Madison NOW.” Attendees are encouraged to wear white, the color of suffragettes.

“It’s going to be a great time. It’s a good chance to meet and network with other women,” Lemmer says. “It’s free for anybody who wants to come but, of course, donations to One Wisconsin Now, Madison NOW or the ACLU will be welcomed and appreciated.”

Women’s Equality Day: Celebrate Voting with Madison NOW will be held Saturday, August 26, 6-10 p.m. at The Rigby Pub & Grill, 119 E Main St. in downtown Madison. The event is free.