The power to modify, or amend, the Constitution was attained from Article V of the Constitution. Within Article V, the amendment process is established through a two step system. The proposal of the potential amendment is done by the federal government with two thirds of both houses, or two-thirds of the states can call a convention for proposing amendments. The proposed amendments are then discussed and voted on at the convention. Once decided, the proposals are then sent out to the state legislatures. They must be ratified by three-fourth of the states(38), only then will they be added to the Constitutional amendments. As of now, 17 have been approved, not counting the ten originals from the Bill of Rights. Tens of thousands have been proposed and discussed; that ratio truly illustrates the difficulty of the ratification process.
The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is a proposed amendment that states that rights promised in the Constitution pertain,without favor, to all regardless of their gender. There are three sections to the ERA:
- 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.
Women that supported the ERA, in it’s early years, thought it to be the only precise way to do away with all gender based discrimination in the U.S. The ratification of The Nineteenth Amendment, declaring a women right to vote, took place in 1920; the new amendment gave rise to the ERA, which was said to be the next step in bringing equal justice under law (equalrightsamendment.org, n.d.). Alice Paul, the founder of the ERA, lead the National Woman’s party in the fight for the ERA. They were supported by a number a mainstream groups, and also a number of well known professional women.
The ERA is important because it signified/signifies pivotal steps towards equal rights regardless of gender. The need for the ERA was proposed to advance, and or sustain the stride towards woman’s rights. The women had just received their first taste of equality, and for some they were not just going to stop at the right to vote. The ratification of the ERA today would equalize issues such as benefit programs, legal systems, and judicial scrutiny.
Times have undoubtedly changed since the birth of the Equal Rights Amendment. When the ARE was first brought up, women had just recently received the right to vote. Some women wanted more, and other were content with their present rights and did not feel as if they were owed additional. People in the 1900’s who opposed the ERA were worried that protective rights concerning sexual assault, child custody, and military draft would be eradicated, leading to the eventual destruction of society. Advocates knew the Constitution did not call for sexual discrimination based on sex, but the argument for them then, and also today, is that it simply does not prohibit sexual discrimination. Support for the amendment was a gradual process; 17 years after the introduction of the ERA, the amendment was added to the Republican Party’s platform and shortly after to the Democrat’s. Today , some Republicans are worried about the ERA requiring mandatory enlistment endangering the protection of families. Democrats generally are just disturbed with the fact that it’s 2017 and women and men are not protected equally under the Constitution. In a poll asking Americans whether or not they would support an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that guarantees equal rights to men and women, 70% strongly agree, 17% somewhat agree,3% somewhat disagree, and 3% strongly disagree.(eracoalition.org, 2016)
To conclude, the Equal Rights Amendment failed to meet its ratification deadline of June 1982.
The ERA had been passed by congress, sent out to the state legislatures, and had a great start. Towards the later years of the deadline the votes slowed, and they ran out of time with thirty-five of the thirty-eight states needed. Advocates still work diligently to push this amendment towards ratification. Currently, campaigners are seeking two avenues of ratification. In the new “Three State Strategy”, supporters are fighting for ratification in three of the fifteen remaining states that did not ratify the amendment the first go around. At the same time, the traditional approach laid out in Article V of the Constitution. The ERA is still a controversial topic due to traditional values, but advocates are not giving up on it and are still working vigorously to push it to ratification. Looking at the number of people still promoting the Equal Rights Amendment, the likely hood of the it being ratified is fair and could definitely happen in the near future.
References
- ERA Coalition: Home. (n.d.). Retrieved September 22, 2017, from http://www.eracoalition.org/
- Equalrightsamendment.org, (n.d.). The Equal Rights Amendment: Unfinished business. Retrieved from http://www.equalrightsamendment.org
- History. (n.d.). Retrieved September 22, 2017, from http://www.equalrightsamendment.org/history.htm
- Phillips, A. (2017, March 04). Analysis | Nevada is about to be the first state in more than three decades to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. Retrieved September 22, 2017, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/03/04/nevada-is-about-to-be-the-first- state-in-more-than-three-decades-to-ratify-the-equal-rights-amendemt/? utm_term=.1cdf5c4a3f19
- Soule, S., & Olzak, S. (2004). When Do Movements Matter? The Politics of Contingency and the Equal Rights Amendment. American Sociological Review, 69(4), 473-497. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3593061