COLUMBIA, S.C. — Monday is Women's Equality Day and marks over a century since women got the right to vote in the United States. What you might not know is, although the 19th Amendment was ratified as part of the US Constitution 1920, South Carolina didn't adopt it until 1969.
News19 caught up with some female lawmakers and local women's' groups about where we are today.
Since women got the right to vote in the U.S., a whole lot of time has passed, and things have changed here in the Palmetto State, but some say there's a lot more that needs to change.
The League of Women Voters in South Carolina sent us this statement saying, "Only a little over 50 years ago, women could not serve on state juries in South Carolina. It was even later when women were assured of the right to obtain credit cards in their own names."
Senator Katrina Shealy said she found a need to champion women's rights, seeing as she was the only female senator when she was elected in 2012.
"In the past 12 years we've done a lot of things for women and children. When I first went into office, there were no women there, and it's not that men don't care about women and children's issues, but it's not the most thing forefront on their minds," Shealy said.
House representative April Cromer said a woman's voice and opinions are needed.
"I think God made men and women different. There's a very distinct difference there. There's different perspectives and I think as many different perspectives that you can get to the table, it matters," Cromer said.
According to the SC State House website, right now there are six female senators and 20 female house representatives in the state legislature.
And as of about two months ago, in over 150 years, South Carolina elected only the third-ever woman to the South Carolina Supreme Court.
"You need good women. I'm not saying any woman, but you need women that are going to speak up and say what's right, tell the truth, speak out about children's issue and family issues and women's rights and children's rights," Shealy said. "What I want to happen is I want for more women to get involved. I want for women to think about not what their husband's telling them to do, but what they want for themselves, what they want for their daughters."
SC Women in Leadership, a local women-run nonprofit said, "As a nation, women's rights have come a long way in the last 104 years, but we still have a long way to go toward achieving equality."