Is Now the Time for the ERA?

One of my first endeavors as an activist for women’s rights was fighting for the Equal Rights Amendment in the late 70’s and early 80’s. The amendment failed to get the required ¾ of the states to ratify by the 1982 deadline, with two states ratifying later. Many issues derailed its progress. Some women feared losing their protected status, which of course wasn’t available to poor women or women of color. And the American preoccupation with who uses which bathroom (which continues to this day) allowed fear of “mixed gender” bathrooms to become a fundamental component of the anti-ERA scare tactics.

The amendment has been reintroduced in Congress every year since 1982. This year, bills have been filed in the Senate (S.J. Res 5) and House (H.J. Res 38) to consider the amendment passed when the required 38 states have ratified it, regardless of any deadline. There is some hope that the new Democratic majority in the Virginia State Legislature will make Virginia the 38th. state to ratify.  

In her review of No Stopping Us Now. The Adventures of Older Women in American History by Gail Collins, television journalist Lesley Stahl says:

“Reading this book you realize you can scratch history, any patch, and you’ll find a pattern of women’s heft and sway, wealth and authority rising and falling, depending on demographics, politics and the state of the economy.”

It is hard to say where the pendulum has swung to now and what that means for the ERA. Since 1982 women have made great strides in access to education and careers, including male bastions like the military. Younger women who are the primary beneficiaries of the policy and laws enacted over the last 40 years may therefore assume there is no need for an amendment. But the lag in pay and in the occupation of leadership positions is still significant. Reproductive rights are under siege and we have a self-avowed sexual predator in the White House.  The #metoo movement has empowered women to come forward, but doing so is still a risk to the victim and harassment and assault are often unpunished. Women still suffer overt and subtle discrimination without the protection of the U.S. Constitution. Millions of women marched and were energized to run (and win) in the mid-term elections. This is both symbolic of progress and a demonstration of the well-founded fear that gains are so easily lost.

Collins’s book is about older women, but can be applied more generally.  The critical question Stahl asks is whether or not “we are doomed to these fluctuations in perpetuity.” Is now the time for the ERA?