How to Update The Equal Rights Amendment
Ari Elorreaga, Smart Ass Fellow
Pictured (from left) are Gloria Steinem, Bella Abzug, Shirley Chisholm, and Betty Friedan, the leaders of the 1960s-70s women's movements and major proponents of the ERA.
Enshrined and practiced equality is overdue in 2020. In legislation, this manifests as the Equal Rights Amendment, which began as the Women’s Movement’s Mount Everest. Born out of a desire for fully protected equality under law, it has faced opposition in the form of ratification delay, counter-movements, blatant dismissal, and burial by “more pressing” legislative issues. This simple goal, uniform protection for all genders, is critical for historically disenfranchised groups like women, LGBTQ+, and minority races. The original ERA had a limited focus on legal distinctions between the sexes. It gained traction in the 1960s and 1970s within Gloria Steinem’s and Betty Friedan’s Second Wave feminism. However, the proposal failed to be ratified due to a counter-movement, industry backlash, and partisan legislative attacks. Phyllis Schlafly and the more traditional female homemakers of the 70s strongly opposed, and even took offense, to an amendment that proposed men and women be considered the same under the law. The Stop ERA movement perceived the amendment as an affront to their way of life. On top of this dissent, corporate insurance companies heavily fought the ERA to maintain their ability to apply different policies to men and women on the basis of biological difference. Women often had higher premiums for life insurance and auto insurance. Republicans in Congress adamantly attacked the ERA on the grounds of rightward bound ideology. For decades now, the ERA has idled in Congress untouched and unratified. Meanwhile, the concept of equality has broadened through increased social justice awareness. Simultaneously, threats within power structures have become newly apparent.
This picture depicts the strong opposition to the ERA during the second wave of feminism. The woman pictured is Phyllis Schlafly, the leader of the Stop ERA movement.
The original idea for the ERA, proposed in 1923, needed an update for its reemergence in the 60s and 70s. The same is true for our current moment. The old definition for non-ubiquitous “equality” doesn’t cut it. It’s time for a rewrite that includes transgender individuals, people of all colors, all religions, and all sexes (with the inclusive understanding that gender and sexuality are spectrums.) An Equal Rights Amendment in 2020 needs to expand beyond sex. It needs to include contingencies for diverse races, socioeconomic backgrounds, and all frequently disenfranchised identities. With explicit equality, social justice movements such as #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, and LGBTQ+ Advocacy, would be legally uplifted. Such legal backing would put a more inclusive society within reach. As the US has diversified, universal legal inclusion of identities is beyond due.
The absence of an Equal Rights Amendment in the Constitution means an absence of equality in social practice. The 20th century ERA’s failure to be ratified and to include broader identities enables exclusion, discrimination, and disadvantages in the workplace, healthcare, systems of authority, and has made the disenfranchised heavily marginalized during times of crisis. Challenges are ubiquitous in the COVID-19 pandemic, but even more so for women, people of color, and marginalized communities. It is easy to say that an abstract concept like generalized equality can take a backseat to such daily real-time crises, but this time of panic makes the ERA even more crucial as the flaws in our society are illuminated. COVID-19 has made inequality abundantly clear. The first step to solving these social gaps is the creation of an equality safetynet. “[The ERA] is like an IUD for rights.”
The priorities of an ERA rewrite should focus firstly on determinants of equal opportunity and quality of life. Pay equity analysis is essential for this. In 2020, women continue to be paid 29% less than men for equivalent work. Mothers encounter an even larger payment discrepancy. Women generally are paid 81% of a man's salary; mothers can subtract 7% per child from that 81%. Race leads to further salary subtractions. Women from non-white racial and ethnic backgrounds earn on average three fourths of what a white man does. The impacts of the pay gap increase as a career progresses as with lesser overall income and earning than male counterparts; This is exacerbated in high-level, highly educated positions and industries such as business, law, and medicine. The data included also does not account for the negative emotional impacts from unequal work cultures and the subsequent abuses. Racially diverse female-identifying individuals are systematically pigeon holed and constrained. A lack of transparency often prevents them from addressing this payment discrimination. A revised ERA necessarily includes provisions that establish both equal and reasonable compensation for equivalent work from all people regardless of race, gender, or sexuality. Transparency regarding pay discrepancies as well as contingencies for maternity and paternity leave would be critical to establishing equality in the workplace. As a basic human right, everyone needs access to employment, compensation, opportunity, and the ability to protect their interests. Pay equality is a necessary step to ensuring safe and equal working conditions.
A basic universal human right, healthcare has failed to be equally accessible and effective for all genders, races, and sexualities. The United States has neglected the fact that different identities require different medical care. For women, birth control is a necessity. It is a part of the right to reproductive agency, a factor that impacts earning potential and employment autonomy. An updated ERA must include a clause that addresses the discrepancy between male and female healthcare coverage. LGBTQ+ individuals also experience radical neglect in the medical sector. Research and availability for medicines/procedures is critical for their full legal, and social, inclusion. The lens of racial injustice further elucidates healthcare discrepancies with women of color facing even more significant challenges in receiving adequate medical attention. Not only are women of color three times more likely to die from pregnancy related causes, but they are more likely to be denied medical care in general.
A rally in favor of ratifying and extending the original Equal Rights Amendment in the early 1960s.
Beyond basic needs, disenfranchised groups are systematically kept out of positions of power. This prevents many of the inequality issues they face from being institutionally addressed. An updated ERA will facilitate, through enshrining a more inclusive ideology in American institutions, the ability of women and minorities to gain access to such influential roles. In government, in business, in medicine, and in virtually every industry, a diverse panel of decision makers is crucial to facilitating progress. The various perspectives brought by people who are currently prevented from acquiring these roles will only improve our society by advancing the goals of #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ+ advocacy, and a plethora of other important social movements. Protection and de-stigmatization of these issues is beneficial for American society to improve.
An Equal Rights Amendment is necessary for our society to acknowledge the struggles of disenfranchised groups and to promote progress in justice. The timeless abuses faced by women and minority identities are prevalent in 2020 with assaults from powerful positions like the president. A timeless protection is therefore needed to counteract the lacking progress. It’s not an outlandish idea to be frightened by the way this year is going, but with enshrined rights for at risk groups, a more positive foundation of societal well-being can be established and built upon. Many organizations are still fighting for the ERA to be ratified and passed. However, the expanded understanding of acceptance necessitates a fresh start and a new amendment. It might not be under the same name but the heart of the amendment, enshrined equality, will be even more prominent.