Why do we need the ERA? ​

• Equal justice under the law should be a basic right of citizenship.

• The 14th amendment’s equal protection clause does not apply to sex based discrimination. See Minor v. Happersett or Bradwell v. Illinois.  That’s why women needed an amendment just to vote. 

• The Constitution’s silence on gender promotes and perpetuates the impression that women are not the equal of men in our society, and that impression leads to unequal treatment of women in all spheres of endeavor and to de facto inequality.

 

• Depending on where one lives, women are subject to a patchwork of laws.  Women living in some states, like Illinois, are lucky have a state ERA, unlike Michigan and Wisconsin.

 

• Cases of sex discrimination should be reviewed under the same standard as for cases of discrimination based on race, ethnicity and national origin--strict scrutiny.

 

• Without it women continue to fight long, expensive, and draining battles to ensure equal rights now automatically held by men.

 

• One hundred years of piecemeal legislation after winning the right to vote have not brought women equal justice under the law. Only the Equal Rights Amendment can do that.

 

• The United States fails in its global leadership as long as there is no a specific guarantee of equal rights for women in our Constitution.

 

• Afghanistan’s constitution has an ERA and the USA does not.