The Equal Rights Amendment – or ERA -was originally written in 1923 by American suffragist/activist Alice Paul, who also took part in the campaign for women’s rights and helped pass the 19th Amendment (women’s suffrage) in 1920.
The proposition calls for as follows:
Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by 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
Basically, it ensures that women and men alike will be treated equally, fairly, and in like terms. Women will not be oppressed or denied privileges that men receive, and equality would not only be a social component, but a legal and Constitutional law as well.
Between 1923 and 1970, the ERA was proposed at every Congressional session but never made it to the Senate or House to be voted upon. In 1970, the House passed it and Senate rejected it, as was the same in 1971, until finally both House and Senate passed it in 1972 and sent it to the state governments for ratification – who ultimately voted against it.
To this day, the ERA has not been passed into law.
I learned about this little tidbit of human rights history in a journalism class here at CSUN. I was surprised to learn that it had never been passed, but at the same time, considering the text of the proposition, I wasn’t. This fact speaks volumes about the gaps between men and women’s rights in America today. To date, women still make 77 cents to a man’s dollar. Women are still discriminated against, denied climbing higher up the “career ladder”, and hold alarmingly few positions in corporate management.
Add in the fact that women are still beaten, raped, abused, sexually exploited, tortured, and victims in countless hate crimes, and it’s no wonder the ERA is not in effect.
I wonder, though, if the amendment had been passed. If the United States Constitution had this text in its amendments, or if the wording of the Declaration of Independence was not “all men are created equal,” but “all persons are created equal” (as was the change women like Alice Paul, Susan B. Anthony, and Cady B. Stanton tried to achieve with their Declaration of Sentiments), would things be different? Would government text really serve a purpose, or has society’s constructs created a chasm between men’s and women’s rights so deep that it is within our minds and hearts ourselves? Can a governmental document, or even the law enforcement to back it up, really change something so deeply embedded in our social reality?
I guess not. Which is perhaps why the amendment is still awaiting the day when social reality will be more conducive to its passing.
