Why is the Equal Rights Amendment Important?

Look around! If you are a woman, you face a subtle kind of discrimination every day. In the workplace, your salary may not be commensurate with the work you do — or the pay received by men doing the same job. You may be called names: honey, sugar, dear (by strangers or by other workers). You may be made to feel that you are required to apply gobs of makeup and wear bone-crushing shoes to do your job “appropriately”.

As a woman, you may feel out of place in gatherings where “suits” prevail. You also may feel left out when you see photos of the Supreme Court, the state and federal legislatures, gatherings of mayors and governors, business meetings, sporting events, and listings of the Fortune 500. (Many golf courses still specify “Ladies Day” and many saloons feature “Ladies Night”!)

More importantly, women need constitutional affirmation — to know that terms such as “liberty and justice for all,” “equal justice under the law,” “government of the people, by the people, and for the people,” and especially “all men are created equal” apply to you — a woman!

THE LAW
By placing this amendment in the constitution, courts would feel the onus to treat women as equal citizens under the law. The ERA would influence the law in lower courts as well as Supreme Court decisions — there would be justification for treatment of women in discrimination cases as forcefully as race discrimination is currently protected (as a result of the 15th Amendment).

In today’s culture, a kind of whiplash effect is taking place in the area of sex discrimination. Conservative politicians are moving toward removing many of the protective legislation concerning women in attempts to return women to the roles of yesteryear (in the kitchen, bedroom, and nursery).

All this at a time when governing documents of many other nations of the world already affirm the legal equality of the sexes (even in Japan and Iraq where constitutions were created under the direction of the United States).

THE TIME IS NOW
Furthermore, the ERA is needed because it is time. In the 21st century, women’s only rights underscored in the U.S. Constitution involve the right to vote. Women need the protection of their rights to equal education, fair paychecks, political and economic opportunities, and freedom from violence. Women also need the freedom to pursue their own “happiness” without having to fight every step of the way — politically, economically, and judicially.

As soon as women and men can work side by side without concern for basic issues of human rights, the sooner the energies of both women and men can be merged to face the challenges of the day. Yes — men and women are different, in many ways. Wouldn’t it make sound strategy to meld the differences to make a much stronger force in the progress of civilization in the 21st century?