But other prominent advocates objected, worried that the E. Florence Kelley , a suffragist and labor reformer, accused the N. Nevertheless, the N. Despite repeated reintroduction, the E. The Republican Party added the E. In , Democratic Rep. Martha Griffiths of Michigan brought the E. With Congress signed on, the next stage of the process to change the Constitution began: ratification by the states.
After passing that threshold, the would-be change has to be approved by three-fourths of the states to actually become part of the Constitution. States certify an amendment by passing it through their legislatures or a state convention, although that method has only been deployed once , for the amendment that repealed Prohibition. In the first nine months after the E. That number swelled to 33 states by the end of , and Gallup polls showed that almost three-fourths of Americans supported the E.
The E. But that enthusiasm waned over time, and its political momentum stalled, thanks to the anti-E. This anti-E. In , a new class of women lawmakers — including Reps. They had to overcome the resistance of Rep. Faced with increased pressure, Celler finally relented. In March , the amendment passed both chambers of Congress with bipartisan support far exceeding the two-thirds majorities required by the Constitution. Congress promptly sent the proposed amendment to the states for ratification with a seven-year deadline.
Within a year, 30 of the necessary 38 states acted to ratify the ERA. But then momentum slowed as conservative activists allied with the emerging religious right launched a campaign to stop the amendment in its tracks. Phyllis Schlafly, a conservative lawyer and activist from Illinois who led the STOP ERA campaign, argued that the measure would lead to gender-neutral bathrooms, same-sex marriage, and women in military combat, among other things.
The opposition campaign was remarkably successful. Support for the ERA eroded, particularly among Republicans. By , only 35 states had ratified the ERA. Though Congress voted to extend the ratification deadline by an additional three years, no new states signed on. Complicating matters further, lawmakers in five states — Nebraska, Tennessee, Idaho, Kentucky, and South Dakota — voted to rescind their earlier support. But in the four decades since Congress first proposed the ERA, courts and legislatures have realized much of what the amendment was designed to accomplish.
The renewed push to adopt the ERA captured public attention in , when Nevada became the first state to ratify the measure since In , the Illinois legislature followed suit.
Steven Andersson, a Republican who helped shepherd the measure. Proponents argue that adoption of the ERA can advance the cause of equality in the twenty-first century, but key questions remain.
Roe v. Wade falls within a line of court decisions expanding the constitutional "right to privacy" to protect individuals against excessive governmental reach into certain personal decisions in their lives.
State equal rights amendments have been cited in several state court decisions e. The U. Supreme Court in separate litigation Planned Parenthood v. State court decisions on abortion are not conclusive evidence of how federal courts would decide such cases. While some state courts have required Medicaid funding of medically necessary abortions, the U. Recent Supreme Court decisions on reproductive rights e. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. The application of laws prohibiting sex discrimination to situations of discrimination based on sexuality is currently evolving even without an Equal Rights Amendment.
Discrimination on the basis of sexuality has not traditionally been treated by courts as a form of sex-based discrimination protected by an equal rights guarantee. Instead, federal and state laws and court decisions have rapidly evolved over the past several decades to legalize same-sex marriage and advance LGBTQAI lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, asexual, and intersexual rights based primarily on equal protection and individual liberty principles.
Windsor , the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional a federal Defense of Marriage Act DOMA , which prohibited the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages and denied federal benefits to spouses in such marriages. In June , by a decision in Obergefell v. Hodges , the Supreme Court conclusively recognized a constitutional right to same-sex marriage and required the states to permit same-sex couples to exercise that right.
In June , the Supreme Court ruled in Bostock v. Clayton County that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of , which bars employment discrimination based on race, religion, national origin, and sex, also applies to sexual orientation and gender identity. Only the written word is the law, and all persons are entitled to its benefit. The issue of transgender women student athletes has received increased attention in recent years.
In Idaho passed a law mandating that "biological sex" be the sole determining factor for inclusion on athletic teams at public schools and universities, but the Idaho District Court has issued a temporary injunction while the case Hecox v. Little is moving through the courts. A federal lawsuit filed in challenging the policy of allowing high school athletes in Connecticut to compete in sports according to their gender identity was dismissed in April , primarily because the plaintiffs had graduated and their claim was no longer justiciable.
Single-sex institutions whose aim is to perpetuate the historic dominance of one sex over the other are already unconstitutional, while single-sex institutions that work to overcome past discrimination are constitutional now and, if the courts choose, could remain so under an ERA. In , the Court found in Mississippi University for Women v. Commonwealth of Virginia decision, which prohibited the use of public funds for then all-male Virginia Military Institute unless it admitted women, the majority opinion written by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg stated that sex-based classifications may be used to compensate the disadvantaged class for economic disabilities they have suffered, to promote equal employment opportunity, and to advance full development of the talent and capacities of all citizens.
Such classifications may not be used, however, to create or perpetuate the legal, social, and economic inferiority of the traditionally disadvantaged class, in this case women.
In , women in the U. Women have participated in every war our country has ever fought, and they have held top-level positions in all branches of the military, as well as in government administration of defense and national security activities.
They are fighting and dying in combat, and the armed services could not operate effectively without their participation. Sexual harassment and sexual assault by fellow service members continue to be a disproportional threat for women on military duty and at the service academies.
The issue of women and the draft is often raised as an argument against the ERA. In fact, the lack of an ERA in the Constitution does not protect women against involuntary military service. Congress already has the power to draft women as well as men, and the Senate debated the possibility of drafting nurses in preparation for a possible invasion of Japan in World War II. Traditionally and at present, only males are required to register with the Selective Service System.
Because the registration requirement classifies people based on the sex assigned at birth, transgender women are required to register, while transgender men are not. After removing troops from Vietnam in , the United States shifted to an all-volunteer military and has not since that time drafted registered men into active service. In Rostker v. Goldberg , the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of a male-only draft registration. In recent years, however, Department of Defense planning memos and Congressional bills dealing with the draft or national service have included both men and women.
It is virtually certain that a reactivated male-only draft system would be legally challenged as a form of sex discrimination and would most likely be found unconstitutional, with or without an ERA in the Constitution. Draftees would continue to be examined for mental, physical, and moral fitness and other grounds for exemption e. Since there is no imminent prospect of reinstituting the draft and no way to know what its requirements would be, a discussion about the ERA's relation to it is primarily theoretical.
Laws that use language based on sex stereotypes can be brought into conformity with the Equal Rights Amendment by substituting sex-neutral categories e. Most family law is written, administered, and adjudicated at the state level. Court decisions in states with ERAs show that the benefits opponents claim women would lose remain constitutional if they are provided in a sex-neutral manner based on function rather than on stereotyped sex roles.
That principle would also apply to laws and benefits related to Social Security and other federal programs. Courts have for many years been moving toward sex-neutral standards in family court decisions, and legislatures have been writing laws with increased attention to sex-neutral language and intent. Legislators will have two years after the ERA is ratified to revise sex-based classifications in laws that might be vulnerable to challenge as unconstitutional after that time. The ERA would not transfer jurisdiction of any laws from the states to the federal government.
Opponents have called Section 2 of the ERA "The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article" a "federal power grab. The ERA would simply be one legal principle among others in the Constitution by which courts evaluate the constitutionality of governmental actions.
People in the United States overwhelmingly support a constitutional guarantee of equal rights on the basis of sex. Despite heightened partisanship and increased visibility of anti-equality policies and messaging in recent years, a poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that the Equal Rights Amendment continues to have significant majority support nationally.
Questions in previous polls generally made clear that it was a constitutional guarantee of equal rights for women and men. Recent past polls have also shown that the ERA has public support at an almost unprecedented level.
The responses show that people in the United States overwhelmingly, almost unanimously, support a constitutional guarantee of equal rights on the basis of sex. Have a question not answered here? Use our Contact page to submit your question. Cart 0. Frequently Asked Questions by Roberta W. The number one most frequently asked question is: What is the full text of the Equal Rights Amendment? It stated: Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction.
Beginning with the th Congress , wording that varies from the version has been added to the text of the reintroduced ERA bill in the House of Representatives: Section 1 : Women shall have equal rights in the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction.
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