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Ratify the ERA!! Make women equal in the Constitution. [1]

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Date: 2022-06-28 00:00:00

Women's equality can be part of the Constitution if we more states ratify the ERA. We could get equality, but for now, vote Democrat to bring in politicians who will support women's rights.

This article published in USA Today in 2020 is worth a read about the ERA.

USA Today - Equal Rights Amendment: Will women ever have equal rights under federal law?

Here are some key excerpts from the article.

“Our country is based on our laws,” Beard said, “and our laws do not reflect the reality that men and women are equal and should be treated as such under the law.”

The women’s movement gained momentum in the early 20th century thanks to the ratification of women’s suffrage. Despite that crucial victory, women’s rights advocates argued that women didn’t have equal rights under the law.

Three years after women secured the right to vote, Alice Paul, a key figure in the suffrage fight, wrote and introduced the Equal Rights Amendment.

It took decades for the ERA to gain traction. The country was recovering from the Second World War, and women were sent back home out of their workplaces. Women felt renewed discrimination regarding employment. The civil rights movement of the 1960s helped the ERA gain momentum again.

The ERA was passed by a majority-Democrat Congress on March 22, 1972, under President Richard Nixon; however, it failed to achieve ratification after it was sent to the states.

Critics of the ERA argue it is no different from the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which says no state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. The 14th Amendment was ratified after the Civil War to address race discrimination, and it has been applied to sex discrimination only since 1971.

After Virginia’s ratification, the ERA reached the minimum of 38 states required by Congress for addition to the U.S. Constitution. Less than a month later, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution that would remove the deadline for the ERA’s ratification.

“Without full equality under the Constitution, women face a devastating wage gap,” Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said in a speech in February. “And this has an impact not only on the families, what families earn today, but on women's pension and retirement in the future.”

The resolution is in the hands of the GOP-controlled Senate. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was dismissive of the measure when asked in February whether he would allow it to come to the floor.

"I haven't thought about that," said Mitch McConnell. "I am personally not a supporter [of the ERA], but I haven't thought about it."

Pelosi, D-Calif., said it’s shameful the ERA hasn’t been enshrined in the Constitution. “As a result, millions of American women still face inequality under the law and injustice in their careers and lives,” Pelosi said in February.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden supports the ERA and said that if he's elected in November, he will work with Congress to include it in the Constitution.

The Trump administration filed a motion to dismiss the case that seeks to add the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution.

“Final ratification and certified publication of the ERA would provide an additional legal barrier to reversing gender-based rights, although it is no guarantee, given its simplicity.”

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[1] Url: https://dailykos.com/stories/2022/6/28/2107073/-Ratify-the-ERA-Make-women-equal-in-the-Constitution

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