The influential Phyllis Schlafly used her platform against the Equal Rights Amendment to emphasize that the possibility of having equal rights between men and women would be “destructive and antifamily”. Schlafly found the amendment to be disturbing when the ERA gained a strong support system for its adoption; nevertheless, she started the STOP ERA movement in order to stress the importance of having a traditional family in America. The primary purpose of the amendment was to prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender in the United States (S&L 103). The support of this amendment was because women felt that they were being institutionally discriminated by the patriarchal dominance. The idea that women who were wives and mothers had to be supported by their husbands and work exclusively in their home was played out. Many women wanted to …show more content…
In Schlafly’s interview with Washington Star, she stated that the ERA would take away our laws that are entitled to reflect the natural differences and the role assigned by God (S&L 105). These “laws” that she is referring to is the sanctity of the husband supporting his wife and family, praising God, and husbands paying alimony to wives. If the ERA was passed, the woman would have to support the family and pay for the same things men would pay, which should not happen; it is deemed unconstitutional and disorderly in terms of tradition and the country’s original conservative principles that the man is the provider. It would also challenge the Christian heritage if Americans themselves are losing their faith in God. Christianity is not prohibited in many public places, but it would be against the First Amendment to pass a law that could potentially prohibit the exercise of the Christian faith in households and in America, which would be
The opponents viewed the traditional role of Housewife as the most fulfilling job a woman could have; Schlafly herself called the American housewife a “domestic economist” (46). Those involved with Schlafly’s STOP ERA campaign saw the proposed amendment as a way to force women to be more like men by pressuring them to take jobs outside the home and provide for themselves themselves rather than be financially supported solely by their husbands. Reverend Jerry Falwell once said, “God Almighty created men and women biologically different and with differing needs and roles. Good husbands who are godly men are good leaders. Their wives and children want to follow them” (B5). According to this man, God wanted women to be subject to their husbands. Ratification of the ERA could allow women to no longer be bound by their husbands, therefore upsetting God and his idea of what a family should be. As simple as it sounds, extending the Constitution to women through the ERA, led the religious to oppose it because of the fear it would create disruption within the traditional Judeo-Christian family structure.
Women began to form many organizations to support the amendment. Women tried everything in their power to get the law passed.
Though the Equal Rights Amendment had various dedicated supporters working to pass it, it also had several Anti-Equal Rights Amendment working to make sure it DID NOT pass. One key figure in this Anti-Equal Rights Amendment was Phyllis Schlafly. Schlafly argued that the passing of the Equal Rights Amendment would cause there to be a boom in the creation of unisex bathrooms. She argued that bathrooms
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.
Things that attended to specifically women like labor laws in heavy industries and not having to be drafted in cases of war would be something of mere memory. Women also get lower rates for both life and automobile insurance because of the fact that they live longer and are involved in fewer accidents, to be fair, and equal right for women will take away the right to for lower rates. All of the legal rights that women had attempted to establish and were granted to them would be taken away if this amendment came to order.
Should women be treated equal to any other person under the law? Should the United States of America abolish all legal differences of men and women? This is a very controversial topic and the discussion of this goes all the way back to the early feminist movement of the ninteenhundreds. Equality for women could be accomplished if the equal rights amendment is ratified by the states. The Equal Rights Amendment states, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” The campaign to pass the ERA has long been a war of feminist versus feminist. One faction focused on the similarities of the sexes and women’s humanity to demand equality and the other feminists focused
On September 25, 1789, Congress transmitted to the state Legislatures twelve proposed amendments to the Constitution. Numbers three through twelve were adopted by the states to become the United States (U.S.) Bill of Rights, effective December 15, 1791.
The Bill of Rights is the first ten amendments of the United States constitution and they are basically a list of restrictions of government powers, not all government powers of course, but certain liberties that the authors deemed necessary to restrict the government from having full control over. These amendments cause a lot of controversy between the citizens that they are to protect because they are interpreted differently by different mindsets and are left a bit open to interpretation that causes confusion and dare I say chaos at times. Lastly, it seems that the Bill of Rights is the only section the mass majority of citizens talk about when they are arguing about the constitution or anything that has to deal with liberties.
One of the most well-known opponents of the amendment is Phyllis Schlafly. She and her followers, known as Stop ERA, used traditional gender roles to scare the public. One of their most common
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.”
To amend the constitution, various steps and procedures must be taken. When either Congress (which takes a two-thirds majority vote in both the Senate and the House of Representatives), or a constitutional convention (which takes two-thirds of the State legislatures) want to propose an amendment, they give it to the National Archives and Records Administration. The Congress proposes the amendment as a joint resolution to the National Archives and Records Administrations Office of the Federal Register for the publication process. The Office of the Federal Register adds legislative notes to the joint resolution and publishes it in slip law format. The Office of the Federal Register also puts together an information package for the States
The Equal Protection Clause is part of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The clause provides that no state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction "the equal protection of the laws". Two landmark 14th Amendment cases are Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education. However, each case treated the 14th Amendment differently and this caused a different outcome for each court case.
Throughout the U.S history, women have fought a long journey in order to be treated fairly and equally. When women arrived to this country, they were seen as housewives who only served their families, nothing less and nothing more. As time progressed, many women started to disagree with the idea of being just housewives and believed they were capable of many great things such as having the right to vote, and being able to work outside of home. Eventually, it started to create inequalities of the legal statuses of men and women. Around the mid-nineteenth century, the women’s right movement started bringing controversial