Sean Patrick Maloney: “today I am honored to rise with some of my colleagues in this special order to celebrate International Women's Day. This…”

“today I am honored to rise with some of my colleagues in this special order to celebrate International Women's Day. This day is a celebration borne out of the fighting spirit of the women's labor movement in the great city that I am honored to represent, New York City. International Women's Day was born in 1857 when women from the garment and textile industry in New York City staged a demonstration protesting low wages, 12 hour workdays, and increasing workloads. It is the perfect day to call for equal rights for women, equal pay for women, equal representation for women, equal treatment for women, and expanded health care for women and all Americans. I have called this special order today to pay tribute to women, past and present, who fight every day for improved working conditions and equal rights and treatment for women. Mr. Speaker, with this in mind, we come together today to celebrate our gains. Already this year we have celebrated the 75th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote, the 23d anniversary of Roe versus Wade, the coming together of over 30,000 women from 190 different countries at the fourth U.N. World Conference for Women in Beijing, and the first Women's Expo held here in Washington, DC. We celebrate these successes at a time when we face the most hostile, antiwoman Congress that I can remember, a Congress more antifamily, antichoice, antiurban, antiworker, and antienvironment, than any in recent history.”