In 1923, on the 75th anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention — considered the country’s first women’s rights convention — suffragist Alice Paul announced that she would be working for a new constitutional amendment that would call for equal rights for men and women in the United States.

A century later, the Equal Rights Amendment still has not passed, and American women are still not equal to men in our society. Yet American women are widely seen as independent, and our democracy has historically been a beacon, if an imperfect one, and a leader around the world.

In the coming months, The 19th will look to challenge long-held assumptions. In this column, building on my existing body of work around these issues, I’ll explore the United States’ role on gender equality around the world, why it matters, and how it intersects with the erosion of rights, the fragile state of democracy, and complex issues around race and identity.

“How are we pushing forward on equality if you’re taking away rights?” said Mona Sinha, executive director of Equality Now, which advocates for legal and systemic change to promote women’s and girls’ rights. “Ultimately, it’s going to harm our economy, education, safety, health care. … It all boils down to women not having the same status as men.”

Nearly 30 years ago, at the 1995 United Nations’ Fourth World Conference on Women, Hillary Clinton declared that “human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights.” The convening in Beijing was a watershed moment in the global push for gender equality: 189 countries agreed on strategic objectives to consider factors including climate, poverty and violence as obstacles to full equality.

Read the full article about gender inequity by Errin Haines at The 19th.