In the United States,
Right Now,
Under the Law,
We Are Not Equal.
Right Now
It is legal for courts, employers, and businesses to show a gender bias.
The U.S. does not guarantee that all citizens have equal civil, human, and diplomatic rights from all types of discrimination.
There is no strong legal defense that guarantees the continued rights of women.
Courts do not have a clear standard for settling on cases of gender discrimination or clarity on what sex inequity is and how it should be addressed.
Right now
men and women do not have equal rights.
ERA
noun, acronym
The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), also known as The Sex Amendment, is written to guarantee equal rights for both men and women.
It reads:
Section 1 - Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on the basis of sex.
Section 2 - The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Section 3 - The amendment shall take effect two years after ratification.
In 1982, it was the closest amendment to ratification. It passed both houses of Congress and passed with
As the country debated whether men and women should be subject to the draft, the ratification deadline passed.
35 OUT OF 38 STATES NEEDED FOR RATIFICATION
The U.S. is the only G7 country without equal rights for sexes explicitly spelled out in our Constitution.
165 of 197 Constitutions written worldwide guarantee women and men equality.
How does the US compare?
THE UNITED STATES DOES NOT.
The Constitution was written at the Constitutional Convention and didn’t provide legal rights such as the right to vote for the majority of people living in the United States -- excluding slaves, Native Americans, debtors, and women.
3 years after the 13th amendment outlawed slavery, the 14th Amendment was passed. This granted citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the United States and guaranteed all citizens “equal protection under the laws.”
Women were granted to right the vote: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”
In a major victory for Civil Rights, poll taxes, which disproportionately hindered African American citizen’s right to vote, were outlawed.
After an initial introduction by Alice Paul, the Equal Rights Amendment was introduced in Congress. Paul affirmed the importance of sex equality in writing, saying that “we shall not be safe until the principle of equal rights is written into the framework of our government."
Both the Democratic and Republican parties added support of the Equal Rights Amendment to their party platforms. However, for years, the ERA was blocked in committee and never made it to the House.
Feminist advocates, including Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan, helped push the ERA back into the attention of Congress. The ERA passed with over ⅔ of the vote in the House of Representatives.
The ERA passed in the Senate and was sent to the states to be ratified. The states were given a seven-year deadline to ratify, and within the next year, 30 states ratified the ERA.
30 states ratified the Equal Rights Amendment within the first year.
Phyllis Schlafly started a campaign called “Stop ERA,” arguing that the Equal Rights Amendment would upset traditional gender roles. Many believe that the ERA would have passed in the 70s without this opposition push.
After a successful march of over 100,000 protestors, Congress extended the deadline for ERA ratification to 1982. Even then, the deadline passed with 35 of the 38 states needed for ratification.
Nevada became the first state since 1977 to ratify the ERA. Then, in 2018, Illinois became the 37th and most recent state to ratify. Currently, the US is one more state away from reaching the number needed for ratification.
In late April, the US House Judiciary Committee held an inconclusive hearing to debate whether or not the deadline for the Equal Rights Amendment should be removed. If the deadline is removed, this would mean that other states might have the chance to ratify.
Sources: Encyclopedia Britannica, history.com, equalrightsamendment.org
THE HUMAN CAMPAIGN is a state-of-the-art political platform designed to mobilize the masses and unite the most powerful equality movements in America to raise awareness and pass The Equal Rights Amendment. Their work also involves partnering with a constellation of powerful gender equality organizations to bridge the gap between the activists from the 1960’s and today's Millennials.
HOW WILL WE GET THERE?
The Human Campaign hopes to raise awareness and public support for the ERA while also devising and executing a legal strategy for the most politically viable and efficient passage of the ERA.
The Time is NOW!
Where We Are Today:
Equal Rights Amendment in the News
