The historic struggle for the ERA continues
Mar 9, 2020
BELOIT—Blame it on the times, but many of the founding fathers were slave owners. Women, at the time, were considered little more than someone’s property with no voting rights and few other rights.
So, explains part of the plight of inequality through the ages in the documentary film, “Legalized Equality.”
The film and follow-up live skyping with Equal Rights Amendment activist Janette Dean was offered at the Beloit Public Library recently. The presentation was co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Beloit and the library.
The presentation was set in March which is Women’s History Month.
While the Constitution did not legalize rights for women, that does not mean those rights weren’t on their minds.
However it would take more than a century for a major shift to occur in their favor.
Scroll ahead to 1920 and women were finally given the right to vote after decades of struggling to have that privilege. Still there was no law to protect their rights for equality.
To combat discrimination and promote fairness to all Americans regardless of sex, the Women’s Movement began campaigning for the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The push for the ERA received a huge boost from the Women’s Movement in the ‘60s. It was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in 1971 and the Senate in 1972. It then went forward to the states for ratification. But a seven-year deadline was placed on it. Thirty-eight states needed to ratify it. The first year, 30 states did, including Wisconsin.
By 1979, the number was up to 35 and an extension was granted until 1982.
The late Phyllis Schlafly and her supporters mounted opposition to the amendment, saying it was anti-family and that females should be most protected as full-time homemakers. Schlafly and her supporters testified at state legislatures and encouraged fears about women’s rights in relation to wartime drafts, unisex bathrooms, widows’ benefits, abortion rights, lesbian rights and more.
Activists such as Janette Dean continued to pursue the continuation of state ratifications over the years. It wasn’t until 2018 that Illinois ratified the ERA. And on Feb. 20, 2020, Virginia became the 38th state to ratify it.
Problems still remain, however, Dean reminded people in her skyped talk with the public at the library.
First, the 1982 deadline is long past.
ERA supporters would like the deadline removed and the amendment again considered.
Congress has the authority to do that, Dean said. But there is also a second issue.
Five states who ratified the ERA also later decided to rescind their vote.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader-Ginsburg stated she’d like to see the ERA process start over due to the “latecomers” or those states who rescinded their votes.
Regardless, Dean and supporters of the ERA say women should keep pushing for the 1972 amendment to be placed in the U.S. Constitution.
And if that can’t happen, then they would like to see more states ratify it in their individual constitutions.
Roughly 47 percent of the U.S. workforce is women.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, however: “Although women are now working in more fields than ever, they are still more likely to work in lower-paying jobs than men are, and they remain underrepresented in many occupations. Moreover, even when they work in the same occupations, many women continue to earn less than their male counterparts.”
Beloit LWV member Susan Adams favors approval.
“I think it’s very important. Equal means equal.”
Her husband Gregg Schneider had this to say: “Once the amendment is passed, the Supreme Court can’t throw it out. It’s equal rights for everyone.”