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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