Pictured at Women's Advocacy Day at the legislature are women who participated in a press conference. Among them are Marena Groll of NC4ERA, left; Rep. Carla Cunningham, third from left; Roberta Madden of RATIFY ERA-NC, second from right; and Rep. Susan Fisher, right.
Because the crossover deadline has run out for legislation to pass one chamber in order to be considered in next year’s session of the General Assembly, North Carolina women must now wait until 2017, the next long session, for equal rights to be considered.
The measure, House Bill 166, introduced by Rep. Carla Cunningham and 31 others, had been assigned to the Judiciary 1 Committee. However committee chairman Leo Daughtry refused to schedule a hearing. “I don’t think it’s critical at this time,” he said, claiming that great progress has already been made in gender equality. Across the hall, Senate Bill 184 by Sens. Floyd McKissick and Terry Van Duyn died in the Rules Committee, often considered the graveyard for progressive legislation.
Although we didn’t succeed in getting the ERA ratified this year, advocates did make headway. Thirty-two sponsors and cosponsors supported the House measure–nearly a third of the House members. We got excellent publicity in the Asheville, Charlotte, and Fayetteville papers and many others through AP coverage.
RATIFY ERA-NC exhibited and participated in Women’s Advocacy Day, sponsored by NC Women United on April 21. Sister organization NC4ERA also had an exhibit and sponsored a silent vigil in front of the offices of members of the Judiciary 1 Committee, where the ERA had been assigned.
The last weekend in May the ERA will be featured at the annual convention of Business and Professional Women of North Carolina. We have a spot on the state League of Women Voters convention agenda in June, which will be led by Ellie Kinnaird and Roberta Madden. The NC Women’s Forum has requested 100 ERA brochures. On the national level, members of the American Association of University Women are voting whether to move the ERA to action priorities, probably because of pro-ERA efforts in several of the unratified states.
In Congress, Sen. Ben Cardin and Rep. Jackie Speier are poised to introduce legislation to eliminate the deadline for ratification, similar to that introduced in the prior session.
