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Vision 2020 Celebrates Women’s Equality Day
With a Toast to Tenacity
Philadelphia, PA. Aug. 26, 2014 -- Vision 2020, a national initiative to advance women’s
economic and social equality, held a “toast to tenacity” today at the Independence Visitor Center
to honor the 1920 passage of the 19th Amendment that granted women the right to vote.
Lynn Yeakel, founder and co-chair of Vision 2020, toasted the determination of the suffragists
who fought for decades for the right to vote. She was joined by Jeffrey Rosen, president and
CEO of the National Constitution Center, which is collaborating with Vision 2020 to plan for the
centennial celebration of the 19th Amendment in the Year 2020.
Their raised glasses were filled with grape juice, not champagne, to commemorate the
suffragists’ celebration, which occurred during the early months of Prohibition. Philadelphia area
civic and cultural leaders, including members of the 19th Amendment Centennial Advisory
Committee, joined in the toast.
“Today we remember the brave women who worked so long and hard for women’s equality,”
said Yeakel. “We are committed to realizing the vision of full equality and shared leadership
among women and men.”
In 1971, the U.S. Congress designated August 26 as Women’s Equality Day.
Yeakel introduced Philadelphia civic leader Dianne Semingson as the chair of the Vision 2020
Centennial Celebration. Semingson, whose board memberships include St. Christopher’s
Hospital for Children and Urban Engineers, Inc., founded DLS International, Inc., a strategic
planning and marketing communications firm in 1991. She is a former Philadelphia City
Representative and Regional Director for the U.S. Department of Commerce. She was President
and CEO, We the People 200, Inc., the Celebration of the 200th Anniversary of the Signing of the
U.S. Constitution.
“We are very fortunate that Dianne has agreed to lead the planning for the Centennial celebration
in 2020,” said Yeakel. “Dianne is a creative executive who can pull together leaders from the
region as well as national supporters as we develop the celebration agenda.”
Vision 2020 is a national coalition of organizations and individuals working to advance
American women’s economic and social equality by the year 2020. Vision 2020 Delegates from
50 states collaborate with more than 80 national allied organizations that represent more than 20
million women and girls to increase the number of women in senior leadership positions,
advance economic security for women at every age, mobilize voter participation, and educate the
next generation to value shared leadership among women and men. Vision 2020 is a center
within Drexel University College of Medicine’s Institute for Women’s Health & Leadership.