April 11, 2013

With the enthusiastic support of Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and other key local and national leaders, Vision 2020 and the National Constitution Center today announced that Philadelphia will host the nation's celebration of the 100th anniversary of women's voting rights in the year 2020.

Vision 2020 co-chairs Lynn Yeakel and Rosemarie Greco and National Constitution Center interim president and CEO Vince Stango made the announcement at the center. Vision 2020 will collaborate with the center in planning the centennial celebration of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote.

Civic, business, and cultural leaders attended the announcement and pledged support for the 2020 celebration, which will include a mega-gathering of women leaders from all 50 states, a series of major events and coordinated activities, and a public report card on a century of women's progress. The events will occur throughout April 2020 and during the week of August 26, 2020 (the federal Women's Equality Day). With Philadelphia as host city, the centennial celebration will tap into the city's rich history of women's firsts and its unmatched location as the birthplace of the Constitution.

"We plan to have the largest gathering of women leaders in U.S. history here in 2020," said Yeakel. "Over the next seven years, we'll be working hard to achieve our goals of women's economic security and pay equity, more women in senior leadership positions, family-friendly workplace policies, civic engagement, and increased women voting.

"In fact, in 2020, which will be a presidential election year, our goal is 100 percent turnout of eligible women voters."

Mayor Nutter expressed the city's support for the centennial celebration. "Philadelphia's history is interlaced with women's history and I am proud Philadelphia will show the nation what women's equality means in 2020. Philadelphia is ideally situated for visitors from around the country to join this celebration and experience our city of brotherly love and sisterly affection."

"We are pleased to collaborate with Vision 2020 and celebrate this milestone anniversary in our Constitution's history," said Stango. "When our Founders wrote the Constitution, women could not vote; today, women are governors, senators, Supreme Court justices, and presidential candidates. As America's town hall and the museum of 'We the People,' the center looks forward to hosting a dynamic exhibition, engaging programming, and timely discussions about gender equality and the ever-growing role that women play as our nation's leaders."

Vision 2020, a project of Drexel University College of Medicine's Institute for Women's Health and Leadership, launched a ten-year campaign in 2010 to advance American women's economic and social equality by the year 2020. Vision 2020 delegates from all 50 states collaborate with more than 60 national allied organizations that represent more than 20 million women and girls.

Yeakel is Vision 2020 founder, director of the Institute for Women's Health and Leadership, and holds the College's Betty A. Cohen Chair in Women's Health. Greco, formerly the highest ranking woman in American banking, serves on several corporate boards and was a member of former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell's cabinet.

The National Constitution Center is the first and only nonprofit, nonpartisan institution devoted to the most powerful vision of freedom ever expressed: the U.S. Constitution. Located on Independence Mall in historic Philadelphia, the birthplace of American freedom, the center illuminates constitutional ideals and inspires active citizenship as a hands-on museum, national town hall, and civic education hub.

The 19th Amendment Centennial Advisory Committee, which is in formation, includes:

• Anne Ewers, president and CEO, Kimmel Center
• Cecelia Fitzgibbon, president, Moore College of Art & Design
• Bill Glick, dean, Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business, Rice University, Houston, Texas
• Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, University of Pennsylvania
• Meryl Levitz, president and CEO, Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp.
• Connie Lindsey, national president, Girl Scouts of the USA
• Eileen McDonnell, CEO and president, Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company
• The Hon. Michael A. Nutter, mayor of Philadelphia
• Siobhan Reardon, president and director, Free Library of Philadelphia
• Barbara Roberts, former governor, Oregon
• Vince Stango, interim CEO, National Constitution Center
• Andrew Swinney, president, The Philadelphia Foundation
• Rob Wonderling, president and CEO, Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce
• Yvonne Wood, chair, Tennessee Economic Council on Women

 
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