Hey, Cypher here.
Today I'm asking a simple question: Whatever happened to the E.R.A?
The E.R.A. (or Equal Rights Amendment) is something that the US still has yet to ratify.
It is an incredibly simple amendment to the constitution, focusing mostly on women's rights.
You see, according to our constitution, women still do not possess the same rights as men,
merely the right to vote.
No other right has officially been extended to them.
It's kind of odd to think that you could still constitutionally right a law saying that women
are not allowed to be in a public gathering, speak in rally, write for a newspaper, or
own a gun.
Seriously!
The E.R.A.
sought to elevate women constitutionally to the status of men, but it has failed MANY
times.
How!?
Why!?
Why isn't that a problem now!?
It is, but only sort-of.
It has 3 simple lines that would have done this.
It says: "Equality of rights under the law shall not
be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions
of this article.
This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification."
That's all it is.
Now would you believe this was proposed in 1923 and has made it into congressional committee
nearly every year since then, and still hasn't passed?
Surely it's all those misogynistic congressmen!
Well, no.
In fact, in many cases the strongest opponents to the ERA have been women's groups.
Now everything seems weird and convoluted.
That's History for you, never giving simple one sentence answers.
So, enough with the preamble, let's get to the story.
Suffragettes originally proposed the amendment on the 75th anniversary of the Seneca Falls
convention, which had basically started the suffrage movement.
The 19th amendment was already ratified and in effect at the time, so it was foreseeable
to get this one passed.
Some of the more radical suffragettes were supportive, but other women's rights groups
actually protested the amendment.
They had fought for certain laws that gave women more leniency in the workplace than
men, and the amendment would remove these things.
Congress saw no reason to even try to pass the amendment until the late 40's.
After WWII, the congress was swinging closer and closer to passing the bill.
Ike was the first president to officially support the ratification of the bill, and
every president until Reagan would do so as well.
When the 60's came into being, there already was a great deal of support in congress.
Second-wave feminism began within the period and really pushed for the ERA.
Some even saw it as an extension of the civil rights movement of the decade.
Things were getting better.
In 1972, after a great deal of fighting, the ERA finally passed both houses of congress.
It was ready to be ratified by the states, with one stipulation: It had to be done by
mid-1979.
Those seven years would become the hardest years the ERA ever experienced.
At first 30 states jumped immediately on, leaving 8 more to go.
An additional 5 would join in throughout the seven years, but no further.
The ratification became a political mess.
There was a huge backlash in the deep south as well as in the interior southwest, which
never joined in.
The initial ratification seemed to be doing so well though.
It was a woman who lead the charge to stop the ratification.
Her name was Phyllis Shlafly.
She argued that women would stand to lose a great deal more than they could gain from
the passing of the ERA.
This brought many women's groups against it.
This also gave many hardcore conservatives the excuse they needed to oppose the amendment.
The uproar now became clearly opposed, rather than for it.
Five states actually rescinded their ratifications.
In a desperate last ditch attempt, congress approved a (later ruled unconstitutional)
extension on the deadline for ratification.
This didn't help anything, and the needed 38 never came to be.
Since that deadline, the bill has been reintroduced into congress every year, but has yet to make
it out of committee save for once early on.
We are avoiding the equal rights debate for the time being.
At first this amendment seems like it should be an obvious good thing, but I don't think
most women actually want it to be passed once they have considered it thoroughly.
What Shlafly was talking about is still a problem.
Women would be obligated to sign up for the draft, no longer be listed as a dependant
when they are stay at home moms, and accept equal treatment in the court system.
Men cannot shirk these things, and they do not really get any benefits for that.
The ERA would not change much in terms of current affairs, merely the possibility of
repression.
So the question is, do you want the ERA to be ratified?
Thanks for watching.
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I'll see you next time