The Equal Rights Amendment–It’s Time To Right The Grievous Wrong That Makes Women Second Class Citizens In The U.S.

When my kids were learning U.S. history, I used to recite a version of the Gettyburg Address that went something like this,

“Four score and seven years ago our foremothers were at home cooking dinner, doing the laundry and caring for their children and our forefathers got so jazzed up listening to the sounds of their own voices that they forgot to mention the womenfolk in the Constitution.  Oops.”

Bless their little hearts, I’m sure it was an inadvertent omission.  Well okay maybe it was more like an overt usurpation of patriarchal  power.  So either let’s get this thing passed already or as an alternative  get honest and pass an amendment clarifying that we are second class citizens in this country.  Geez.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) and Rep. Carolyn Maloney at ERA Rally

Via the Alice Paul Institute (click link for excellent history of the ERA).

We shall not be safe until the principle of equal rights is written into the framework of our government.”–Alice Paul at  Seneca Falls, 1923

Section 1. Equality of Rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or 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.

Via Ms.

In a press conference Congresswoman Maloney stated, “Women have made incredible progress in the past few decades. But laws can change, government regulations can be weakened, and judicial attitudes can shift. The only way for women to achieve equality in the United States is to write it into the Constitution“.