Equal Rights Amendment Argument

The Equal rights Amendment was proposed to set equality for every citizen no matter the sex. The amendment has three sections. The first one states “equality of rights under the law should not be denied by the U.S on the account of one's sex.” Section two says that “congress has the power to enforce this law.” Last but not least, section three says the amendment will take effect two years after ratification.

What could be more important than the equality of rights for all American citizens? Women have tried without success for 80 years to be acknowledged as equals in our Constitution through an Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). Currently there is nothing in the United States Constitution that guarantees a woman the same rights as a man. The only equality women have with men is the right to vote. In order to protect women’s rights on the same level as men, I am in favor of an Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution today.

The American women’s rights movement started in 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention when 100 people, 32 male and 68 female signed the Declaration of Sentiments. The inequality was no longer acceptable. During the civil war, women began to fill the work, mainly

In 1921, women were granted suffrage, but suffragists were still hungry for more. Knowing that the right to vote would not eliminate sex discrimination in America, Alice Paul wrote the Equal Rights Amendment to step closer to equality. After half a century of struggle, women in America are still fighting for rights that men were given to when they were born. Even though women are just as intelligent, capable and hardworking as men, if not more, they are not considered an equal under the U.S. Constitution. Can you believe that today, in the 21st century, we still degrade women and treat them as inferiors to men? Can you believe that just because you are a woman, you are less than equal to the male population? Look around you, all those boys and girls are not equal to each other under our “just” country’s laws. As it is long overdue, the Equal Rights Amendment should be ratified because there is no other amendment that talks about sex discrimination, it would eliminate any inequality in regards to sex, and it would make the judicial stance on sex discrimination cases much clearer.

The Equal Protection Clause derives from the Fourteenth Amendment, which specifies “no state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws…” As a part of the Reconstruction Amendments, the aforementioned clause was meant to ensure racial equality in the Reconstruction Period and has been applied successfully against the affirmative action. Introduced in United States v. Carolene Products Co., the strict scrutiny has been applied to the cases, in which a fundamental constitutional rights have been infringed or a government action applies to a suspect classification (i.e. race, religion, national background). Specifically, in regards to Bakke v. Regents of University of California, the Supreme Court (“the Court”) concluded that, considering that the University of California, Davis received several Caucasian applicants for its special admission program in 1973 and 1974 and that none of the applicants received the admission to the program since the start, the program unfairly administered in favor of minority races and, therefore, violated the rights of the white applicants under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Furthermore, from Hopwood v. State of Texas, the Fifth Circuit Court ruled under strict scrutiny that, the affirmative action imposed by the University of Texas School of Law (“the law school”) violates the Fourteenth Amendment since neither the law school nor the University of Texas system has proved a proof of

For quite a long time, women have wanted to receive the same treatment as men. When African American men were able to vote, women wanted to be able to vote as well. When World War II was in progress, women would work in the factories while their husbands, brothers and fathers were fighting in the war. Women were tired of being treated differently and not having the same rights as men, so they wanted to conceive an amendment that would force people to treat them as equally as men and anyone else. This amendment was called the Equal Rights Amendment. On March 22, 1972, the equal rights amendment, E.R.A., was passed by the United States Senate and was sent to the states for ratification. Thirty states ratified the amendment but then a

Since the 1920’s, women have been fighting for equal rights. Women’s groups spent decades working to pass laws that would ban gender discrimination. Finally, in 1972, the Equal Rights Amendment was passed by Congress even though

The ERA was introduced in every Congress since 1923, and yet it still failed to gain ratification. The ERA was the Equal Rights Amendment, which means that equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. I believe it was never passed because of many reasons. One reason was because some ERA supports got offended by other supports who were very obnoxious, which was a backlash on feminist tactics. (Doc. E & F) Another is that men and women might switch places, and it would be a threat to traditional roles.(Doc. J &M) My last reason for why the ERA was defeated is because since men and women would have equal rights, the women could also be drafted and serve the country.

The Equal Rights Amendment began its earliest discussions in 1920. These discussions took place immediately after two-thirds of the states approved women's suffrage. The nineteenth century was intertwined with several feminist movements such as abortion, temperance, birth control and equality. Many lobbyists and political education groups formed in these times. One such organization is the Eagle Forum, who claims to lead the pro-family movement. On the opposite side of the coin is The National Organization for Women, or NOW, which takes action to better the position of women in society. Feminism is the most powerful force for change in our time. The Equal Rights Amendment has been a

During the 20th century, male and females were not being treated equally a lot of women started getting mad because they weren’t getting jobs or the right to vote as men, so it led to the Civil Rights Movement, the Equal Rights Amendment was involved, because women weren’t treated equally or given the same rights as males. The Civil RIghts Movement was when there was a lot of racism and black and white people weren’t given the same rights, it was unfair to the black because they couldn’t do so many things like vote and also there was sex discrimination. In 1923, Alice Paul, leader and founder of the National Woman’s Party, considered that ERA should be the next step in the 19th Amendment in granting equal justice under the law to both sexes, male and female, in the U.S. Alice Paul said “ We women of America tell you that America is not a democracy. Twenty million women are denied the right to vote.” A text from the amendment said “Equal of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”

The quest for equal rights is usually put into two different waves: the first wave being considered women’s suffrage and the second being the equal right movement. One big uprising in feminism happened alongside the abolitionist movement. Many women started to realize that, as they were fighting to get African Americans out of their version of perdition at the hands of their slave owners, that they themselves were slaves to the will of the men in society. Since many women petitioned for antislavery, the Congress in session at the time put forth the gag rule, which placed many of these petitions off to the side for “consideration.”

was introduced to Congress while being promoted by Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. Furthermore, the support for the amendment grew from 1960 to 1970 and that brought dozens of states legislatures to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. The fall of the movement to pass the amendment is the result of the countermovement’s being led by Phyllis Schlafly. Phyllis raised many concerns and questions about the amendment that the ERA supporters never had an answer. As a result of this “[there was a] rapid pace of ratification halted with only thirty-five of the needed thirty-eight states approving the amendment by the end of the seven-year deadline. Congress extended

In September 1972, I started STOP ERA, which is a nationwide organization dedicated to prevent ratification of the amendment. I also published a monthly newsletter. Most people believe that these efforts were responsible for preventing ratification of the equal rights amendment. My supporters and I were successful in convincing women that the ERA was the front

A rhetorician is ‘a speaker whose words are primarily used to impress or persuade.’ Phyllis Schlafly was a skilled rhetorician. She convinced thousands of middle-class conservative women to oppose the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, which passed in the Senate in 1972. The ERA granted the equality of rights between sexes and forbade discrimination based on sex. The bill was originally supported by both parties, but slowly lost the approval it needed in order to be implemented. By law, 38 states must approve the bill in order for it to be ratified. By 1982, only 35 states approved the amendment, for which Schlafly is credited. In 1972, Schlafly launched her 10 year campaign against the Equal Rights Amendment by forming ‘Stop ERA’,

The Equal Rights Amendment; first proposed by the National Women's Party in congress in 1923, was sent to the states in March 1972 and was the second amendment to fail at being ratified. Originally the deadline to pass or fail the amendment was 7 years, but that was extended to ten years. The final deadline was on June 30, 1982. It was meant to equalize men and women’s rights and it goes as follows: “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.” One other amendment like the Equal Rights Amendment was the "Lucretia Mott Amendment” proposed by Alice Paul in 1923 at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention which read: "Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction” and the "Alice Paul Amendment" written by Alice Paul in 1943. The amendment was eventually passed but in the form of the 19th amendment.