Everything You Need to Know About the ERA
photo source: time.com
The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was first proposed in 1923 by The National Women’s political party, but it wasn’t until 1972 that it passed in the Senate to be sent out to states to ratify because of Bella Abzug, a U.S. Representative, and feminist activists Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan. Unfortunately, they only had until 1982 to ratify 38 states and failed to do it by the given deadline. They received heavy opposition from a grassroot campaign created by conservative lawyer Phillis Schlafly. Recently, Hulu released Mrs. America, which depicts the movement to ratify The Equal Rights Amendment that took place in the 1970s.
In January of this year, Virginia became the 38th state to ratify, but it didn’t spend too much time in the news cycle because of all the COVID-19 coverage. On the 13th of February, the House of Representatives passed Joint Resolution 79, which removed the previous deadline. The next step is for the Senate to pass Joint Resolution 6, but the current Senate majority is Republican and Mitch McConnell, the Majority Leader, has opposed the ERA, meaning it will die on the floor. The Trump administration’s Office of Legal Counsel, the legal advisor to the President and all executive branch agencies, has also stated that it considers the ERA "expired."
There are many arguments against passing the ERA from the far-right. In the ‘70s, the conservatives ran a successful campaign by telling the public that if it passed, then women would be forced into combat, gay marriage would be legalized, gender roles would be eroded, gender neutral bathrooms would be instated, and as a final point, conservatives claimed that all feminists are baby killers. In 2020, many of those arguments have been left in the dust except one: “A claim that ERA would require taxpayer-funded abortions.” One of the main reasons that they are only focusing on anti-abortion rights is because all the other things the republicans predicated and refuted have already come to fruition. “This has nothing to do with the abortion issue. That is an excuse, not a reason,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Currently, the constitution does not protect women from discrimination based on sex. Women have been protesting for systematic change and advocating for equal representation in the workforce because their rights have been under attack and have gone unrecognized.
In 2018, Brett Kavanaugh was appointed to be Supreme Court Justice by President Trump, who was later accused of sexually assaulting Christine Blasey Ford. In the meantime, abortion rights have been taken away in a few states across the country, which may mean that Roe v. Wade may come to an end. As of right now, the Supreme Court has a 5-4 conservative majority, and since Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s health is slowly deteriorating, we can expect a new Supreme Court Justice nominee very soon.
If Trump gets relected, it will become a 6-3 conservative majority, and women’s reproductive rights will be dismantled, which would make abortions illegal. Making abortions illegal will not stop abortions from happening, it’ll stop safe abortions from happening. The ERA would protect women’s reproductive rights from being taken away.
Ginsburg has also stated, “I would like to see a new beginning, I’d like it to start over. There’s too much controversy about latecomers.” Some states want to rescind their former ratification and it has caused some debate about whether that should be taken into consideration. If we start over like Ginsburg suggests, we could be waiting another 100 years to end sex discrimination.
Right now, we’re putting police officers under a microscope due to police brutality and negligence. There have been dozens of examples were sexual assault have not been taken seriously by police officers and the court of law. “Nearly 1 in 5 women have experienced completed or attempted rape during her lifetime.” What will happen to those women who become pregnant from sexual predators? Why are they expected to carry that baby? Do they not see that a forced pregnancy will cause the victim to have significant mental health issues? What about the states where it is legal for a police officer to have sex with a person in their custody? How is this a viable law, yet the ERA is ignored and viewed as “too liberal” to become part of our constitution?
We’re even seeing gay rights undermined by the current presidential office. Trump’s administration submitted a brief to the Supreme Court arguing that taxpayer-funded organizations can reject LGBTQ+ couples from adopting children.
“While this case involves rejecting LGBTQ families, if the Court accepts the claims made in this case, not only will this hurt children in foster care by reducing the number of families to care for them, but anyone who depends on a wide range of government services will be at risk of discrimination based on their sexual orientation, religion or any other characteristic that fails a provider’s religious litmus test,” Leslie Cooper, deputy director of the ACLU’s LGBT and HIV Project, told NBC News. Back in 2017, the Trump administration banned transgender Americans from joining the military because they didn’t want to invest in transgender healthcare. If the ERA were to pass, it would push for more protection for trans-individuals, preventing them from getting discriminated against by the system.
Alongside reproductive health rights being under attack, women still experience sexual assault, misogyny, and the wage gap in their work forces. Why is that white women get 82 cents for every dollar earned by men and other POC get even less? It’s also true that women make up the majority of the workforce right now, so why is that we are not supported by legislation and still fighting for rights that were first mentioned a 100 years ago?
It’s important to voice your opinion to your local senators for the sake of the ERA. People’s lives are under attack in this very moment, and we must be vocal in order to see change. It’s important we educate ourselves about the situation at hand and join organizations to take action against gender inequalities. We’re so close to the finish line—it would be shame if we gave up the race.
Organizations:
National Organization For Women