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One more shopping day until Women's Equality Day. Perhaps the lack of suffrage gift wrap and Susan B. Anthony-themed party napkins explains the limited awareness that Sunday honors the passage of the 19th Amendment, which gave women in the United States the right to vote.

Perhaps the name — Women's Equality Day — implies that equality is something already achieved, which is far from reality. Women's equality is a work in progress.

The anniversary of U.S. women gaining the right to vote morphed into Women's Equality Day in 1971. Passage of the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote, but it did not grant equality.

Tucsonan Sheila Tobias, a historian, scholar and author of "Faces of Feminism: An Activist's Reflections on the Women's Movement," said the right to vote was a pre-condition of women's equality because it represented the right to be politically active. The event was not a date, but 75 years of work before 1920.

Passage of the 19th Amendment did not guarantee the right to vote for women of color, Tobias said. The Voting Rights Act of 1965, which flung open the polling-booth curtain by eliminating literacy tests and other forms of voting rights discrimination, was more significant to women of color, she said.

The passage of the amendment had no impact on economic equality, said Tobias. Some steps that broke —and continue to break — the barriers to women's employment include eliminating restrictions on admitting women to law and medical schools and Title IX, shorthand for Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which eliminated discrimination, on the basis of sex, in education programs or activities receiving federal funds.

The date for Women's Equality Day was selected to commemorate the 19th Amendment. But it's also supposed to celebrate women's continuing efforts toward full equality, according to the National Women's History Project.

"Continuing efforts" is the operative phrase. Equality will not come in a fancy box with a neatly tied bow. Rather, the process toward equality is messy and protracted.

We look to a time when women achieve financial equity. Women who work full-time, year-round can expect to earn about 77 cents for every $1 male counterparts make, according to the U.S. Census, based on 2004 data. That figure is unacceptable.

Women and their views must be respected on issues varying from the freedom to make health choices to being treated with dignity. For example, harassment — unwelcome sexual advances and offensive sexual behavior — must be considered unconscionable and not merely an inconvenience or a legal liability before equality is achieved.

Likewise, women — especially young women — must have respect for themselves, which is derived from education, education, education. The poverty, drug addiction and most other social issues keeping women — and men — from achieving their potential are often the result of inadequate education. Our community must make quality, excellent education for all of our citizens a priority.

If you're on your way to Party City to pick up Elizabeth Cady Stanton party hats, don't bother. Instead, we suggest you honor Women's Equality Day by registering to vote. Voting is still a pre-condition of equality.

In the summer of 1920, 35 of the required 36 states had ratified the 19th Amendment. The issue — the last ratification needed — was coming before the Tennessee Legislature. The anti- and pro-suffrage groups were busily engaged in a tense game of push-me- pull-you.

The Tennessee Legislature vote was tied. Harry Burn, who was 24, broke the stalemate when he voted his mother's desire. On Aug. 26, 1920, Tennessee became the last state necessary to make women's right to vote, the 19th Amendment, part of the U.S. Constitution.

Our state ratified the 19th Amendment Feb. 12, 1920.

Women in Arizona had the right to vote almost eight years before the 19th Amendment. The state Constitution with which Arizona officially became the 48th state on Feb. 14, 1912, did not include women's suffrage. However, an initiative that gave women the right to vote was approved nine months later. With only male voters, the amendment to Arizona's Constitution passed 2 to 1.

Sources: Sheila Tobias; "Understanding the Arizona Constitution" by Toni McClory; National Women's History Project Web site.