Do you remember what you were doing 100 years ago today? I’m guessing not so much. But if you are old enough — say you are 105-year-old actor Norman Lloyd — you might remember that on this date in 1920, women in the United States finally got the right to vote when the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified. Yes, it is true: there are still people alive who were born when women did not have the most basic American right. Thank goodness that’s all fixed now, right?

This remarkable anniversary came to mind when I read an interesting story on Colorado Politics about Colorado’s own 2nd Congressional District U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, and his sponsoring of House Resolution 473, which would authorize the establishment of a monument in the District of Columbia commemorating the passage of the 19th, and the women’s suffrage movement. Incidentally, if you are like me, you may have wondered why “suffrage” is the word associated with voting. Voting shouldn’t make you suffer, so why is that word used? Well, history fans, it’s not “suffer,” but rather “suffrage,” which comes from a Latin word “suffragium” which means voting tablet or ballot. So fighting for suffrage is fighting to get a ballot.

A Colorado artist is set to craft a statue for the memorial featuring leaders of the women’s rights movement such as Sojourner Truth and Susan B. Anthony. Several additional Colorado representatives signed on as co-sponsors, including U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet. What really surprised me, however, was the note in the story that President Donald Trump has actually tweeted support for the monument. Given his rather checkered history with women I confess I’m surprised by his espousal. A more skeptical person might suspect he was told it would make him look better on women’s issues.

In any case, this anniversary serves to remind us all of the relative youth of our nation and that we continue to evolve in our thinking. My grandmother, who made really, really good cinnamon rolls, was 27 when she first got the right to vote. My own mom was a toddler of two when her gender became eligible to cast a ballot. Let me say that again, my own mom was born into a world where women were not allowed to help select the leaders of our great nation.

Thank goodness that stuff is all fixed, eh?

Well, as it turns out, there is still a great deal of work to do. 

I remember a day, when I was back in junior high, when my mom was really ticked off. She had been denied a credit card in her own name because she was “just a housewife.” The card company was willing to give her a card with “Mrs. (my dad’s name)” but not one with “Melva” on it. That particular offense against justice is now fixed, but unfortunately, vast levels of misogyny still flourish in our society. An interesting article from last year noted no less than 18 different ways in which women remain unequal to men. You likely can list several of these, such as the wage gap and the dearth of women in executive board rooms. But did you also think about other ways our societal misogyny continues to promote inequality? Women pay more for common household items then men do. Socks are cheaper for men, because…? Female entrepreneurs are less likely to get investment funds, and when they do, they are likely to get less than a man would.

Women make up 51% of the population here in the U.S. (yup, men, we are the minority) yet only make up about 25% of the Senate and House. Here in Colorado, we are better, with 45% of our state legislature made up of women, the highest percentage in the nation. We should be simultaneously proud of that and yet also concerned as long as that number is less than the population breakdown.

So, what is to be done? Well, the monument is a step in the right direction. Young women visiting D.C. should be able to see themselves reflected in our nation’s history. But of course, we need to do much more. And we need look no further than the sexism that is greeting Kamala Harris to see that these issues remain front and center. President Trump has already called Harris “nasty” and “a madwoman.” Others have been much worse. 

When Geraldine Ferraro became the first woman to run for VP in the modern era, she was asked at a campaign stop in Mississippi if she could bake blueberry muffins. When she replied to the man asking her, “no, can you?” she was informed that “down here, men don’t cook.” The next few months will help us see how far we have come as a nation, not only from Ferraro’s campaign, but indeed, from 1920. Within a single human lifetime, women went from being non-human in the eyes of election officials to a woman as quite possibly being elected the next U.S. VP. After Nov. 3, we will know a bit more about how our nation truly feels about equality. I hope we continue to strive for true equality, regardless of who is baking the blueberry muffins.