Equal Rights Denied

By Hank Silverberg

“Amendment 28

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.”

It’s a simple idea. Provide equality in the law for men and women in areas like divorce, property and employment. The Equal Rights Amendment was written by suffragette Alice Paul and originally introduced in Congress in 1923, just two years after women were granted the right to vote. It was reintroduced many times after that but it did not really gain any steam across America until the women’s movement was reborn in the 1960’s.The amendment was finally passed by Congress in 1972. By 1977, 35 states had ratified the E-R-A and it had broad support. But it stalled when conservative women claimed it would allow young women to be drafted and would damage women’s rights to win custody of their children in divorce cases. The deadline for ratification was extended until 1982, but it never got the 38 states needed. 

One of the the original arguments, the draft, is no longer a factor.  Thousands of women have served in the all-volunteer military for decades with distinction, and since 2015 they have been in some combat roles. Just last week a judge in Texas ruled women would now be eligible for the draft if it is ever reinstated. On the other decades old argument, today child custody is often granted to women in disputes with fathers, so much so that some men have begun to complain the pendulum has swung too far.    
                              

(Button from 1979 effort to extend
 deadline for the ERA, Hank Silverberg collection )

A new push for the E-R-A began in 2017, probably spurred on by an incumbent President who has shown little respect for women on many issues, and conservative efforts to roll back women’s rights in other areas.  Nevada and Illinois became the 36th and 37th states to ratify the amendment in the last two years, leaving just one more for full ratification.

It looked like Virginia would be the 38th state 
until last week when the General Assembly failed to approve the E-R-A by just one vote in the House of Delegates.

There has been a great deal of argument that the June 30, 1982 deadline has long passed and states which had previously ratified the amendment would have to do it again before it could become part of the U.S. Constitution. But we may never get a chance to find out if that matters.

What’s troubling about all this are the reasons this simple amendment continues to be rejected by some. In Virginia for example, with the draft no longer an issue and women serving in the military, an argument long gone, opponents tried to use abortion as a justification for squashing the E-R-A. They spent the past week claiming that making the proposed amendment part of the Constitution would mean unrestricted access to abortion. They claimed that it would make any government policy limiting access to abortion impossible because it would be deemed discriminatory on the basis of sex. It’s a totally ridiculous claim. Twenty-four states have some kind of equal rights amendment language in their state constitutions, some of them going back over 140 years, yet no  law has ever been overturned because of the state E-R-A amendments, including restrictions on abortion.

If you ask any woman, no matter what their social status or education, whether there is still discrimination based on their gender, you will get some interesting answers. Equal pay for equal work is the one that gets mentioned the most. But they also will tell you about the glass ceiling and restrictions on the jobs they can do. Some women will also relay the attitudes from many men that women are not equal. Among their complaints is the country’s health care system, which puts less research into female related diseases and health care plans that pay for erectile dysfunction medication but refuse to pay for birth control. Abortion rights, now guaranteed by federal law, probably will not be on their list.

For forward thinking Virginians, the decision this past week to reject ratification was a particularly hard pill to swallow. The state has spent the last several decades trying to get rid of the image of the old south. The scandals which have tainted the Governor, Attorney General and Lt. Governor were a throwback to that image. Approving the E-R-A would have helped somewhat to put that remnant of Dixie in the rear view mirror and move the state forward on one aspect of Civil Rights. It didn't happen. 

The original reason for the Equal Rights Amendment still exists across the country and it is still needed. In many places gender discrimination is as prevalent as racism or anti-semitism. The bottom line is-- my wife and my two daughters should have all the rights and privileges of male citizens, and it should be codified in our country's supreme guiding document so that there is no doubt. It’s about time the E-R-A became part of the U.S. Constitution.

    (Your suggestions and comments are welcome)

  
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