August 26 is Women's Equality Day in the United States, but you wouldn't know it. There's no holiday and there are no parades. 72 years ago, in 1920, the 19th Amendment was ratified, giving women the right to vote. The supporters of women's suffrage worked for 72 years to get the amendment ratified, and by the time women were granted the vote, only one of the original activists was alive and able to exercise her new right. People who say that the Constitution should never be altered would do well to remember that the founding fathers were enlightened only up to point: They believed in slavery and in denying suffrage to women.

Maybe it's fitting that we don't celebrate Women's Equality Day, since we don't have equality. The salary gap between men and women is widening again, and our culture is still punishing women for everything from having careers to having opinions. The discrimination tends to be more subtle than it was 30 years ago, but it is discrimination nonetheless.

There has been a lot of talk lately about the women in Afganistan. For them, gender hatred has often resulted in torture and death. Our leaders make much of this horror, yet they do nothing to advance the cause of women's rights in our own country. And as for post-Taliban Afghanistan--it should be noted that the women there still do not have the vote. One wonders if they ever will.