Exhibit, Speeches Mark Women's Equality Day At San Diego Museum

SAN DIEGO, CA — The Women’s Museum of California will open an exhibition and host a series of speeches Aug. 26 to mark an annual gender equality day — with the pandemic's impact on women's rights in focus this year.

A panel discussion will be "inspired by the fact that the pandemic and stay-at-home orders illuminated just how far we still need to go to achieve gender equality," museum Executive Director Felicia Shaw told Patch on Thursday. Panelists are due to cover gender equality, disability rights, ageism, racial disparities and transgender issues as well.

Joely Proudfit, the first Indigenous woman to be appointed to the State Commission on Women and Girls, will join San Diego County Supervisor Nora Vargas and former San Diego City Councilmember Barbara Bry as panelists.

Event keynote speaker Toni Atkins, California Senate Pro Tem, is due to discuss the influence of female role models in leadership and a “renewed urgency” to change government policies in favor of greater equality, the museum said in an Aug. 11 statement.

The exhibit, titled “Looking Back, Moving Forward: The Evolution of the Women's Movement in the United States,” will depict the movement's progress starting from the past century, Shaw said.

Museum events coincide with Women’s Equality Day, which commemorates the 1920 adoption of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The amendment bars federal and state governments from denying citizens the right to vote based on gender.

The museum has sold 30 in-person tickets, and 49 people had registered for the livestream as of Thursday. In-person seating is closed as the museum is limiting admission to curb any spread of COVID-19. Livestream registration remains open.

Live events will begin at 4:30 p.m. at the San Diego History Center, 1649 El Prado, in Balboa Park.

The San Diego-based museum, founded in 1983, is the only institution of its kind in California and one of five in the United States that’s dedicated to women’s history.