Cynthia Vincent: What happened to the Equal Rights Amendment?
“Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” – Equal Rights Amendment
Once upon a time as colonial America was adopting a government of new laws, some practices regarding women’s rights followed from across the Atlantic. Married women were not allowed to own property, acquire monetary assets or sign contracts. Property and financial assets belonging to a single woman once she married became possessions of her husband including their children. Divorce wasn’t a viable option.
As our society blossomed and views began to broaden, new laws and amendments were enacted to expand protection of individual rights. In 1848, the Married Women’s Property Act was passed. Congress added the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on June 4, 1919, granting women the right to vote. President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law on Aug. 6, 1965, to end voting discrimination. This was of particular importance to African American women and men who can now challenge targeted, unfair voting restrictions.
The Equal Rights Amendment was first introduced to Congress by Alice Paul, the founder of the National Women’s Party, on Dec. 10, 1923, which would grant women full equality and eliminate distinction between men and women regarding divorce, property and employment. The ERA floundered in Congress until 1969 with the evolution of the Women’s Rights Movement. Democratic U.S Rep. Martha Griffiths of Michigan gathered signatures from her colleagues and presented the ERA to the House floor, bypassing the committee chair that had blocked it for 20 years. It passed in the U.S. House in 1971 and passed in the U.S. Senate in 1972.
In order to become the 28th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratification by 3/4ths of the states was required. A 7-year time limit for ratification was attached, expired and extended. Within the first nine months, 22 states ratified the amendment and by 1974, 33 states had ratified. On Jan. 15, 2020, Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the ERA. But by then the time limit had expired. This process will be 100 years old in December of this year. In 1992, Congress passed the 27th Amendment after 203 years.
A resolution to remove the time limit and pass the ERA failed this year. The resolution passed in the House but was defeated in the Senate.
In March of this year, Sens. John Kennedy, R-La., and Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., introduced a resolution against the amendment citing removal of the time limit will violate Article V of the Constitution. The Kennedy/Hyde-Smith resolution further states that passage of the ERA could possibly open the door to requiring women to register for the draft, require physicians to administer puberty blockers to transgender children, prohibit separate restrooms and prisons for males and females, and legalize abortion on demand. This echoes the anti-ERA sentiments of right-wing activist of the 1960s and ’70s Phyllis Schlafly. The abortion issue is always front and center when equating with women’s rights. These are scare tactics.
Article V of the Constitution makes no mention regarding time limits which were arbitrarily added by Congress. Congress has the power to pass this amendment.
The 12 states that have yet to ratify the ERA are Missouri, Arkansas, Utah, Arizona, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.
Nebraska, Tennessee, Idaho, Kentucky and South Dakota have attempted to rescind their states’ ratification. The legal validity here is in question. Article V only allows for ratification and doesn’t address rescinding ratification.
Discrimination on the basis of sex violates the protections provided by the 5th and 14th Amendments as recognized by the Supreme Court. Thank you, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
We need the ERA now more than ever. It covers all of us and would defend the rollback of our rights. Contact your U.S. senators and representatives and tell them to lift the time limit and finally make the ERA our 28th amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Cynthia Vincent is a member of Stronger Together Huddle, a group engaged in supporting and promoting the common good. She can be reached at mcneil102@icloud.com.
This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Cynthia Vincent: What happened to the Equal Rights Amendment?
