LeadHERship in ‘26
Bovio Rubino Service Sponsors Alice Paul Center’s
Women's Equality Day Festival
Celebrating Inclusivity, Education and the Continued Fight for Gender Justice
Every year August 26 commemorates the day the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution was approved by Congress in 1920, granting women the right to vote.
Today, the date is celebrated nationally as Women’s Equality Day, honoring the achievements of women throughout history and recognizing the generations of women who advocated for greater autonomy, opportunity and equality.
Women’s Equality Day is particularly meaningful for women Veterans, who broke barriers and paved the way for future generations in fields that have historically been male dominated, often without receiving the recognition for their contributions they deserve.
Sponsorship is part of LeadHERship in ‘26
Bovio Rubino Service is a Voorhees, New Jersey headquartered HVAC and Plumbing service company in an industry with very few women owners. That’s why Bovio Rubino Service President Angela Rubino Hines stepped forward to sponsor the Women’s Equality Day Festival. The festival also aligns with the firm’s community outreach cause LeadHERship in ’26 which is focused on creating and advancing opportunities for women.
Alice Paul a Local Hero whose Impact was National
Held Sunday, August 23 at Paulsdale, Alice Paul’s childhood home in Mount Laurel, New Jersey the Women’s Equality Day Festival celebrates women’s history while creating opportunities for education and connection among attendees.
Alice Paul was born on January 11, 1885, in Mount Laurel. She was raised in a Quaker family that valued equality between men and women and service to society.
Paul graduated from Swarthmore College in 1905 and later studied at the University of Pennsylvania. While studying abroad in England, Paul became involved with the militant British suffrage movement led by Emmeline Pankhurst and was arrested several times for protesting.
After returning to the United States, Paul joined the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) and helped organize a massive women’s suffrage parade in Washington, D.C., on March 3, 1913.
Thousands of women marched, but the event was disrupted when crowds attacked the protesters. National attention helped bring greater focus to the suffrage movement.
Paul eventually broke with NAWSA over differences and formed the National Woman’s Party (NWP). In 1917, the group began picketing outside the White House, where they demanded a constitutional amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote.
Protesters were arrested, imprisoned and during hunger strikes, subjected to force-feeding. The horrible treatment of the women suffragettes
generated public support for the cause.
Congress passed the 19th Amendment in 1919, and it was ratified by the states in 1920. Paul continued fighting for women’s equality, including introducing the Equal Rights Amendment in 1923. She died in Moorestown, New Jersey in July 1977 at age 92.
Local Woman-Owned Businesses Featured
The Women’s Equality Day Festival featured more than 50 local businesses with the majority woman owned. Businesses showcased a wide range of products, from homemade sauces and jewelry to hand-painted artwork, creating a vibrant marketplace for attendees to explore and support local entrepreneurs.
The Women’s Equality Day Festival took place at Paulsdale, Alice Paul’s childhood home in Mount Laurel. It is a National Historic Landmark, offering visitors an opportunity to explore Paul’s life and legacy through its exhibits.
Inside the historic home, visitors can walk through displays featuring photographs and informative wall panels that chronicle Paul’s life and her decades of work for women’s equality and the vote. The exhibits provide valuable context about the suffrage movement and the broader fight for gender justice, making the historic location an important part of the festival experience.
The Women’s Equality Day Festival also featured Dan’s Waffles food truck, a beer garden, kid’s activities and a BookSmiles book drive. During the festival, the Alice Paul Center hosted four sessions with guest speakers, community leaders and performers.
Session 1: Finding Ourselves: Immigrant Women, Resilience and Belonging
The first session was a panel featuring NJ Folklife at the Perkins Center for the Arts celebrating New Jersey’s cultural heritage. Attendees heard personal stories from two immigrant women who came to New Jersey to build fulfilling lives and careers. The conversation explored resilience and the challenges of working in the military and other male-dominated fields, alongside balancing full-time careers with parenthood and the importance of carrying personal values throughout life’s challenges.
Session 2: Dance Performance by Leah Stein and Sarah Cunningham
The second session featured a site-specific dance performance by Leah Stein, creative director of Leah Stein Dance Company, accompanied by two additional dancers. Musician and faculty member at The Julliard School Sarah Cunningham performed the music for the piece. The Leah Stein Dance Company is known for site-specific performances that engage with and honor the history of the spaces in which they perform. On that note, the performance showcased life on the expansive, lush grounds of Paulsdale, creating a powerful connection between movement, place and history.
Session 3: Rare Book Show and Tell with BookSmiles
The festival continued with a presentation from Cherry Hill-based nonprofit BookSmiles, led by Founder and New Jersey English teacher Larry Abrams. Abrams shared the story behind BookSmiles and the experience that inspired him to launch the organization by encouraging one of his former students to read with her children. Today, BookSmiles collects books and redistributes them to children and communities in need. During the presentation, Abrams also shared rare, centuries-old books with attendees and provided historical and cultural context about how the books were understood and experienced during their respective time periods.
Session 4: RYSE: Reclaiming Youth Stories for Everyone Panel
The final session featured two representatives from RYSE: Reclaiming Youth Stories for Everyone, an initiative led by young women in New Jersey to uncover overlooked perspectives from the American Revolution. The panelists shared primary sources they discovered through historical research, highlighting women’s perspectives on significant events in American History. They also discussed the broader women’s rights movement and the lessons they also gained through their work at RYSE.
Supporting Women’s Progress
For Bovio-Rubino Service, sponsoring the Women’s Equality Day Festival was an opportunity to support an event that celebrates women’s history while encouraging continued education, connection and progress. We are proud to stand alongside organizations and individuals working to ensure women’s stories are recognized, shared and carried forward for generations to come.
