Who Needs the ERA?

As recently as last week, I heard someone refer to the ERA as “satanic.” The Equal Rights Amendment, first introduced in 1923 and finally submitted to the states for ratification in 1972, has been maligned in every way imaginable. Critics have called it unnatural, rebellious, and all sorts of derogatory adjectives. Some claimed it would make men “unnecessary.” Thirty years ago, evangelical preacher Jerry Falwell charged that ratification of the ERA would require women to go into combat and become prisoners of war, while conservative lobbyist Phyllis Schlafly invoked the feared specter of coed restrooms.

Have you ever actually read the text of the Equal Rights Amendment? Here it is, in its entirety:

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

Fast-forward to 2007. We are still waiting for three more states to ratify the ERA. It has been ratified by 35 of the required 38 states. These days, 20% of the U.S. military is female. Women have received medals, protected convoys, and yes, some have been prisoners of war. And how many of us have enjoyed the family restrooms at the mall and the airport? All without the ERA.

Those who opposed the ERA as an ungodly evil still oppose it. They have stepped back from most of their dire warnings, and instead weakly reply that ERA is “no longer needed.” I assert that it is.

We need the ERA because it establishes that the Constitution and the whole of the law apply to women in the same way they apply to men. The 14th Amendment, introduced after the Civil War, prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, but dealt a back-handed blow to women by adding the word “male” to the Constitution for the first time. The 19th Amendment established women’s right to vote, but stopped short of guaranteeing women equal rights in any other area. Currently a patchwork of state and federal laws protect us from some sex discrimination. Until we can count on uniform constitutional protection, women will always find ourselves having to prove that we have the same rights men already take for granted.

We need the ERA because it prevents a rollback of women’s rights. It only takes a simple majority for Congress to establish laws that could damage our freedoms. Writing equal protection into the Constitution guarantees that, short of another amendment, no new law could be applied to one sex alone.

The reason we need the ERA is because we do not have it yet.

-- Jeannie Babb Taylor