A graphic displaying a founding father giving a white man his rights is displayed, with a person of color standing aside not receiving their rights. Illustration by Lilli Sams
The ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment by the Virginia state legislature raises questions about the future of the amendment on a national level.
It is high time that constitutional equality is guaranteed to women through a more modern iteration of the Equal Rights Amendment.
According to a 2017 study by the Pew Research Center, women are about twice as likely to report facing gender discrimination at work than men.
The study also found that women are five times more likely to be paid less than a man for the same job and that they are roughly four times more likely to say they had been “treated as if they were not competent because of their gender”.
In this modern era, constitutional equality should be guaranteed to women.
Though the original ratification deadline of June 30, 1982 has been affirmed by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, some advocates believe that this decision could be contested in the courts.
Moreover, according to NPR, five states have rescinded their ratifications. The impact of these rescissions is unclear. When addressing Georgetown University law students at an event on Feb. 10, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg pointed out, “If you count a latecomer, how can you disregard states that say, ‘We’ve changed our minds?’”
Both of these factors mean a complicated and lengthy process for the amendment to go through — one that may stall women’s fight for constitutional equality.
However, there is an alternative option — propose a new Equal Rights Amendment.
A new ERA would not be vulnerable to the same deadline criticisms as the current one, which would eliminate any related complications in its ratification.
Furthermore, a new ERA could be written in a more inclusive language. A new iteration of the amendment could be written to explicitly protect the rights of gender-nonconforming individuals as well as cisgender women, for example.
Perhaps most importantly, a fresh start would allow state governments to show their enthusiasm for equality without becoming bogged down in logistics. A wave of ratifications throughout all 50 states would send a striking message — discrimination based on sex is reprehensible.
As Ginsburg said in a 2014 interview with C-SPAN, “(The principle of equality between the sexes) belongs in our Constitution and is in every constitution written since the Second World War. So, I would like my granddaughters, when they pick up the Constitution, to see that notion, that women and men are persons of equal stature.”
Generations of women’s rights advocates have fought for their constitutional right to equality, and their achievements cannot be in vain. We cannot wait any longer for equality between the sexes. Action must be taken now.
