Can we count on the ERA?
October 6, 2021
The Equal Rights Amendment, first proposed in 1923, sought to secure legal equality for everyone, regardless of sex. Despite its popularity, it was never ratified. Now, almost a century later, Virginia became the 38th state to support the ERA’s addition to the Constitution.
In the decades since its proposal, however, women have gained rights previously denied to them. Women can vote, and discrimination on the basis of sex is illegal thanks to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. What purpose does ratification serve now when its goals have seemingly been met?
While it may look purely symbolic on a surface, the ratification of this amendment serves a practical purpose. Most existing protections can be repealed via a simple majority vote. This means that rights taken for granted — for example, a woman’s right to be paid the same rate as her male peers — can disappear thanks to a single person’s vote.
It may seem an unlikely occurrence, but the absence of the ERA means that women’s rights can be rescinded piecemeal. Because the ERA states that the “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex,” women’s rights — such as rights to fair wages and protection from discrimination — essentially become set in stone.
By supporting the ERA’s ratification, Virginia has reignited a debate about the amendment’s validity. Despite its initial rejection by Congress in 1923, the amendment was approved by Congress in 1972. The approval came with a demand that 38 states ratify the amendment before it becomes a part of the constitution. If it did not get that support within seven years, then it would not be amended to the Constitution.
The deadline was extended to 1982, at which point the amendment only had 35 supporting states. It did not gain any more state support until 2017 when Nevada ratified the bill. In 2018, Illinois followed suit. Following Virginia’s ratification in 2020, the ERA now has all 38 votes that it needs. Why did these states choose to support it then, so far after the deadline?
Because the deadline was not included in the amendment’s body of text. Coupled with the argument that the Constitution never gave Congress the power to dictate when a state should ratify an amendment, the ERA is now in limbo.
The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Council claims that the amendment cannot be certified because it did not garner enough support in time. This prompted a lawsuit from the attorneys general of Virginia, which was followed by additional lawsuits from the attorneys general of Nevada and Illinois.
The lawsuit’s attempt to disregard the deadline failed, and for a moment it seemed like the ERA was doomed. However, the House of Representatives overruled that decision by passing a resolution to remove the deadline.
While that sounds promising, optimism might be misplaced. The only barrier now is a similar resolution in the Senate, which relies on at least ten Republicans voting alongside all 50 Democrat senators. For comparison, only four Republican representatives voted in favor of the deadline’s removal in the House. In the Senate, at least 60 senators must vote in favor of the bill in order for the deadline to be nullified.
While the ERA should definitely be amended to the Constitution, as it protects the rights of so many Americans, partisan politics may continue to hinder its progress. The fight over the Equal Rights Amendment seems far from finished and hope may best be placed elsewhere.
SANDY OESTREICH • Oct 8, 2021 at 9:41 pm
After from marching for the Equal Rights Amendment during the 1970s, I got serious about it in the 1990s and incorporated us as the National Equal Rights Amendment Alliance. Inc., 501c3. We were a small group, speaking out for ERA passage by just 3 more states’ votes, or ratifications. Public death threats and being run off the road in front of our home by opposers of ERA being passed didn’t stop us, though.
In 2009, we created and got launched the bill to eliminate the Time Limit bill imposed by opposing politicians. The U.S. House passed that, but twice now, the U.S. Senate has not, so it is still in limbo.
But, meanwhile, the 3 remaining required states voted for ERA’s addition to the U.S. Constitution on January 27, 2020, long after that 7 year Time Limit had passed…as usual, a vote so keenly hated politically, took too much longer than the 7 years allotted. Long enough to make ERA unsustainable for the U.S., say the still opposing politicians!
So our Equal Rights Amendment is locked in place, held hostage, while it’s now-huge number of following organizations grow older, tired from 18/7 days, and broke. We are counting on our fine U.S. President Biden to fulfil his promise to help ERA be established in our U.S. Constitution, where it legitimately belongs.
This is 2021. women and men who speak out across our nation for ERA’s codification in our Constitution, are growing older, and prospects look dimmer, even as 94% of Americans strongly favor ERA’s addition to our Constitution. The animosity between Democrats and Republicans over the ERA’s Constitutional placement in our Constitution, the pandemic, growing joblessness, and fear are keeping the ERA doggedly but unsuccessfully out of our Constitution!
To our minds, that holding especially women from our rightful place of Equal Treatment in the Constitution burns our souls as we are kept from our human rights as the largest population segment !
To us, this frustration makes us even more angry as we realize that THERE IS NO VALID REASON TO KEEP ONE SEX OUT OF OUR CONSTITUTION. It has been an exhausting 35 years for we who began to fight what seems to be endless and frustrating battle that the confused public eschews while waiting for those neo-medievalist politicians hold us hostage.
The ERA’s strong Resolution states:
“EQUALITY OF RIGHTS UNDER THE LAW SHALL NOT BE DENIED OR ABRIDGED BY THE UNITED STATGES OR BY ANY STATE ON ACCOUNT OF (ONE’S) SEX”.
That is a very popular Resolution that 94% of Americans agree with, and one that rights the present wrongs with prejudice against one sex, females! Codifying the ERA in our Constitution will bring about amazing benefits to all, such as:
10/8/2021
KUDOS TO OUR AMERICAN JESSICA NEUWIRTH WHO HAS WORKED CONSISTENTLY TO IMPROVE WOMEN’S AND GIRLS’ STANDING IN MANY AMERICAN PLACES AND ABROAD. AS A PROUD MEMBER-LEADER OF THE ERA COALITION, I SEE JESSICA’S THEME AT WORK EVERYWHERE. SHE MAKES US PROUD WITH HER DISTINCTIVE UP-FRONT GOALS FOR FEMALE ADVANCEMENT BEHIND THE SCENES AND UPFRONT.
AND IT IS WORKING! WORKING RIGHT HERE IN AMERICA, AS THE REST OF US HOPE TO COPY HER EFFECT ON FEMALES’ STANDING HERE AND EVERYWHERE! IT IS NOW APPARENT TO MUCH OF AMERICA’S POPULATION THAT IT IS INDEED TIME FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS TO STEP UP WITH THEIR VERY APPROPRIATE DEMAND FOR EQUAL TREATMENT THAT HAS STIRRED OUR AMERICAN NATION TO START TO LEARN WHAT IT TAKES TO BE TREATED AS READY TO TAKE CHARGE!
THE AMERICAN PUSH FOR GENDER EQUALITY MIGHT BE EMPOWERED BY OUR OWN NATIONAL EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT ALLIANCE’S AMAZING NEW LIST OF BENEFITS THAT HAVE GROWN OUT OF OUR “WOMEN’S MOVEMENT” WHICH IS FINALLY MOVING, THANKS TO THE HUNDREDS OF ERA ORGANIZATIONS ONBOARD:
WHAT IS NEEDED IS THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT in in IN OUR U.S. CONSTITUTION AS IS REQUIRED RIGHT NOW! READ WHAT IT STATES AND WHAT SOME OF THE BENEFITS TO ALL ARE, AND WHAT SOME OF THE BENEFITS WILL GO TO OUR REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY at NO COST TO TAXPAYERS!
The Equal Rights Amendment simply states:
“Equality under the law shall not be denied by the United States or by Any State ON ACCOUNT OF [ONE’S] SEX”. Once passed into our U.S. Constitution, it…
1. Makes Sex Discrimination against Males and Females a U.S.Constitutional violation. One example, public safety: Rape adjudicated as the soul-searing crime that it IS! Another, fair divorce and child custody, etc.
2. NOT an entitlement. Simply equal treatment for American Males and Females, a worthy principle. Nothing more.
3. Statistics from already-ratified states: rates of abortion and divorce are lower there than in Un-ratified states. Women, girls are More than their uterus.)
4. The Equal Rights Amendment is Not Dead, says
a) Virginia’s Attorney General James Gilmore
b) The Time Limit is impotent as is not in the votable section of this Amendment, but located separately.
c) N.B., full Acceptance of the 2 recent state ratifications /votes.
d) No state’s act to rescind its vote for ERA ratification has ever been officially accepted. Our U.S. Constitution does not provide for ratification votes’ recissions/later reversals of votes.
5. Economists predict a 15% surge in Gross Domestic Product/GDP similar to other nations’ experiences and seconded by the IMF, EU, UN and OECD.
6. This Amendment uniquely REQUIRES NO FUNDING and is U.N.-predicted to stabilize communities, lending healing to our Nation.
7. State Legislature’s Staff Analyses find no drawbacks to its passage.
8. A recent nationwide survey demonstrates that 94% of those in All American sectors are In Favor of ERA passage. (see validated survey at our http://www.2passERA.org)
9. Analyses predict that wise voters, especially women—the nation’s majority–will likely flock to the polls for those lawmakers endorsing this Amendment.
10. According to Amendment wording, passage may not affect corporate donors’ bottom lines.
11. Once America’s fine Males realize ERA benefits them, too, its passage could act to dissolve common adversity between the sexes.
12. Helping us and our huge partnerships to put ERA IN our Constitution will produce one more step closer to being the “Representative Democracy” that our Nation has always claimed: U.S.A. is shamefully neither at present.
STANDING UP WITH OUR NATIONAL EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT ALLIANCE INC., IN SHORT, WILL MAKE FOR MORE PEACE, LESS VIOLENCE AND EQUAL TREATMENT FOR ALL. WON’T YOU HELP? WE HAVE BEEN WORKING UNPAID, 18/7 FOR MORE THAN 35 YEARS. (NO, IT ISN’T ‘ALL ABOUT ABORTION; NEVER WAS ANYTHING BUT A FAKE PLOY TO GARNER “NO” VOTES).
(C) 2020 The National Equal Rights Amendment Alliance, Inc., Founder-President, Sandy Oestreich. [email protected]; http://www.2passERA.org COMMENTS WELCOMED.