Equal Rights Amendment Not Ratified

The fight for women’s rights is unfinished.  Many are surprised to learn that the Constitutional Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) has never been ratified.  This amendment was proposed to affirm the rights of women to be equal to that of men as protected by the U.S. Constitution.  First, what would the Equal Rights Amendment do?

               Section 1.  Equality of Rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by 

                                   the United States or any state on account of sex.

               Section 2.  The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate 

                                   legislation, the provisions of this article.

               Section 3.  This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of 

                                   ratification.

·       Without the ERA, the Constitution does not explicitly guarantee that the rights it does protect are held equally by all citizens without regard to sex. The first - and only - amendment affirmed as equal between men and women is the right to vote.

·         The ERA, once implemented, would provide a strong legal defense to the rollback of significant advances women have made over the last several decades.  Without the ERA, Federal and State governments can weaken or replace existing laws on woman's rights. Something we have been witnessing over the last two years with the Republican lead House and various state politicians across the nation. 

The ERA was written in 1921 by suffragist Alice Paul and has been introduced in Congress every year since 1923. The ERA was passed by the U.S. Congress in 1972 but was never ratified by the required minimum of thirty-eight states by the 1982 deadline.  Here is an overview:

Twenty-one states have a version of the ERA in their state constitutions, sixteen of which had ratified the Federal ERA and five who did not.  Those states include:

          Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts,
          Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Texas, 
          Washington, Wyoming, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Utah, Virginia

The ERA is introduced every year to Congress.  In 1983, the ERA passed through House committees with the same text as in 1972; however, it failed by six votes to achieve the necessary two-thirds vote on the House floor. That was the last time that the ERA received a floor vote in the Congress.  The bill was last introduced in May 2011.

The ERA could be ratified by restarting the traditional process of passage by a two-thirds majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives, followed by ratification by legislatures in three-quarters (38) of the 50 states.

Alice Paul stated in 1923, "We shall not be safe until the principle of equal rights is written into the framework of our government."  Unless this principle is placed into the Constitution, the principle of equality and protection of rights cannot be denied or abridged on account of sex.  Laws women have fought for, and fought hard for, can be reversed at any time.  Take a look at the current political atmosphere where a record number of Federal and State laws have been sought to limit reproductive rights of women, fair pay and anti-discrimination laws, and even laws to protect women from violence.

American men guaranteed their rights more than 230 years ago.  Isn't it time that the other 51% of the U.S. population be granted the same?