Ushering in a new ERA

ERA. Three little letters that held no meaning for me until just last week. Equal Rights Amendment, the object of the current feminist movement. This proposed Constitutional amendment guarantees equal rights to women under the law. That's it. There are no controversial items tacked onto it. Just equality. Simple enough.



Sadly, I'd never heard of it before, and neither have a lot of young women. Who would? It's relatively uncovered in the media, despite the fact that it's been presented to Congress every year since 1923. It sounds like a good idea, but America is past the Civil Rights Movement, isn't it? Why stir up all the trouble for rights we have? Isn't everyone equal already...?



Not even close.



Did you know women have only the right to vote according to the foundation of our system of law? Why is that? Why does the most important document in this country not include women -- women who work like men, feel like men, think like men? The 14th Amendment, Section 1 declares "No State shall [...] deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." But of course, when Congress said person, what they meant was man. Hmmm. Seems odd. And actually quite disturbing.



But there are so many other laws that protect us! (Note the sarcasm.) There's Roe v. Wade precedence, the pivotal case about a woman's right to choose. There's the Equal Pay Act, prohibiting differences in payment based on religion, race, and sex. And no one can forget Title VII of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act, which made equal opportunity employment the official national policy.



Yes, those are great. I'm glad I have the right to have an abortion. I'm glad the government says I can't be paid less than a man, and I'm glad I can't be told I can't work, because I'm a woman. But, to be brutally honest, those laws will never have the power that a Constitutional Amendment carries.



Here are some fun facts:

1. Several states have ratified laws that require women to wait at least 24 hours upon their first visit to an abortion clinic before the operation can begin. This way we can't do what we want when we want.


2. The Equal Pay Act isn't working. On average, a woman makes $0.77 to every man's $1.00.


3. Women are still turned down for jobs and even fired because of their sex and the possibility that they may become pregnant and have to take off work.

Smells fishy to me. Why aren't these things working? Why are we still stuck in the past, and how the hell do we combat this?

Here's how: We put it in writing smack dab in the Constitution, so we won't be forgotten.

What would happen if the system collapsed? Nothing would be left but the US Constitution, the rock that everything was built upon. And where would we as women be? Well, we'd have the right to vote. But that's it. No equal pay; no right to privacy; no equal opportunity employment; no rights afforded by the rest of the Constitution; no legal standing at all, because, as I said before, people really means men.

So feminists (both men and women), let's get out! Let's hit the streets and tell the states who refuse to whole-heartedly ratify the ERA (South Carolina's one of the squirmers.) that we deserve to be seen as citizens, not just child-bearers and bedmates. We have the strength, the knowledge, the insight to rival any man, and we want our government to acknowledge that.