Women's Rights

Do women have equal rights with men in the United States?  Yes and no.  All 50 states have legislation that prohibits discrimination based on sex, but the Constitution of the United States does not protect women from sex discrimination.  In 1920, the 19th Amendment to the constitution was ratified which guaranteed women the right to vote, but that's as far as it goes.  In 1923, a woman named Alice Paul introduced the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which would have guaranteed equal rights for women and prohibited discrimination based on sex.  The ERA was finally passed by congress in 1972, and sent to the states to be ratified...but it never was.  Only 35 of the 38 states needed actually ratified it.

So why is this important?  If every state has laws that protect women's rights, why do we need a constitutional amendment to that end?  Laws can easily be changed or completely overturned, that's why.  Also, by making an amendment to the constitution it becomes the supreme law of the land, able to be upheld by the highest court in the country - the Supreme Court.  Furthermore, what kind of message does it send to young girls and women that their state doesn't feel that it is important to secure their rights for generations to come?

For more information on this topic visit www.equalrightsamendment.org, a project of the Alice Paul Institute.

Something to think about:  The states that have refused to ratify the ERA are all predominately right-wing republican states.  Could their unwillingness to ratify the ERA be tied to their apparent desire to control women's bodies and strip them of their own bodily autonomy (i.e., birth control, abortion, rape sentencing etc.)?