Gender Equality : The Ratification Of The Equal Rights Amendment

The full text of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) reads as follows, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex” (qtd. in Stewart 33). These twenty-four words would become some of the most controversial of the twentieth century. Under the nineteenth amendment, American women obtained the right to vote in 1920. This amendment inspired Alice Paul to draft the first ERA which she then introduced to the United States Congress in 1923. After this first proposal, the ERA would eventually be proposed in each succeeding session of Congress (Stewart 33). Despite its introduction every year for fifty years, the ERA did not accumulate a strong opposing force until after it

The first women 's rights convention is held in Seneca Falls, New York. After 2 days of discussion and debate, 68 women and 32 men sign a Declaration of Sentiments, which outlines grievances and sets the agenda for the women 's rights movement. A set of 12 resolutions is adopted calling for equal treatment of women and men under the law and voting rights for women.

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.

During the late 19th and early 20th century in America, the rise of Feminism challenged the traditional gender roles. The female authors of this time period represented realistic aspects of women’s struggles, which often reflected limitations from society and their own lives. The three female authors who advocated women’s struggles in their writings were Sojourner Truth, Willa Cather, and Edith Wharton. In the speech to the American Equal Rights Association, Truth reveals that women do not have rights to present their voices in the court. Cather addresses women’s devastating labor life after the marriage in “A Wagner Matinee.” Likewise, in “April Shower”, Wharton portrays men’s criticism upon economically successful women. American female authors of the late 19th and early 20th century demonstrates the ideas of Feminism by men objecting to representation in politics, prohibiting career over marriage, and criticizing economic self-sufficiency.

The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was defeated because of its popularity throughout its ratification and women opposing the Amendment itself. The ERA was an Amendment introduced to the United States that gave equal rights to every gender. This meant that there would be no differences between a male and a female in terms of divorce, work, etc. This Amendment was seen as the only way to eliminate gender discrimination. In 1923 the idea was first brought to Congress by a group called the National Women’s Party. However, amending the Constitution is a very difficult process. First, Congress present the Amendment and get a majority vote of two-thirds from the House and the Senate. After the Amendment is passed by Congress then it must be ratified by three-fourths of the states. Even though Congress passed the ERA and the future seemed bright. The states did not ratify the Amendment. Therefore, the Amendment died off by 1982.

The Equal Rights Amendment was reintroduced in Congress in July of 1982 and has been before every session of Congress since then, and there still has not been a majority ratification to add this Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The 19th Amendment is about women's rights. Women gained the right to vote when this amendment was ratified. This amendment was passed to show that women were slowly gaining the same rights as men.

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.

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 was formed to combat legal sex discrimination. The act seeks to end discrimination between women and men in terms of property, divorce, and employment rates along with many other matters. Many supporters of the ERA marched, rallied, and committed acts of civil disobedience just to show awareness, but little did many know they were part taking in a historical continuum in the fight for equality (Francis, Roberta W.).

The Equal Rights Amendment is defined as an amendment to the United States Constitution first proposed in 1972 to give equal rights to men, but it also gave equal rights to women.. Every man, woman, and child deserve equal rights. Females should not have to fight for the right to be paid the same as men doing the same job as them, and homosexuals should not have to fight for the right to love each other without discrimination. Girls in school should not have to worry about what they are wearing being “too obscene” in front of teenage boys. Equality is something that should not have to be voted for but guaranteed.

Retired women are twice as likely as retired men to live in poverty. Although many people believe that the United States doesn’t fit into the category of unequal rights for women because of the rights women in the United States have compared to the rest of the world, that thinking couldn’t be farther from the truth, since the United States culture and the world culture around women is not favored towards women.

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.