RATIFY ERA-NC

This October, a post on ISBA listserv sparked spirited debate. There were over 70 comments made in the span of a week—all about the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which states in relevant part: “Equality of rights shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of sex.” That conversation inspired the following collection of common misperceptions about the ERA and recent efforts to restart the ratification process.

1. Aren’t the sexes equal?

Constitutionally speaking, no.

To quote Justice Antonin Scalia, “Certainly the Constitution does not require discrimination on the basis of sex. The only issue is whether it prohibits it. It doesn’t. Nobody ever thought that’s what it meant.”1 More troubling, 72% of Americans mistakenly believe there is a constitutional guarantee that women and men must be treated equally.2 While some federal legislation has tackled discrimination, the U.S. Constitution lacks an affirmative declaration of equality between the sexes. And the legislation that does exist is not comprehensive and leaves significant gaps in coverage.3 These gaps help explain why women still make only 77 cents for every dollar earned by a man for the same work.

If read plainly, the 14th amendment would seem to encompass gender discrimination as it mandates no “state shall deprive . . . any person within its jurisdiction equal protection of the laws,” but that is not how it has been applied historically. Despite decades of challenges, the U.S. Supreme Court did not treat sex-based classifications as even quasi-suspect until the 1971 case Reed v. Reed, striking down estate administration laws that preferred men. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg spent most of her career trying to get the Supreme Court to see gender in the 14th Amendment, but this goal remains unfinished business.

To read the rest of this article, visit:

https://www.isba.org/committees/women/newsletter/2015/11/mythsabouteradebunked

Equal Pay Day, April 12 is the symbolic day when average women’s wages catch up with men’s from the previous year. The average woman working full time in the U.S. typically has to work 15 months to take home what a white male does in just 12. And if you think that’s bad, this pay gap is even larger for black and Latina women, and is just one of the many ways women experience inequality in our nation.

On that day, the ERA-NC Alliance, a new nonpartisan coalition, was launched. Its purpose is to work toward ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment in NC as part of a nationwide strategy to gain passage. The Alliance operates in direct collaboration with the national ERA Coalition, which is leading a resurgence of ERA advocacy. ERA-NC is nonpartisan and welcomes the broadest collaboration with individuals and organizations at all levels.

Political reemergence of the ERA comes at a time of significant unrest for women dissatisfied with the status of women’s rights in NC and across the nation. Our demand for equal rights is rising in response to regressive legislation and ongoing practices seen as hostile to women, particularly in the areas of pay inequity, pregnancy discrimination, violence against women, and a lack of political parity.

Dr. E. Faye Williams, national president and CEO of the National Congress of Black Women, spoke at the news conference and in a panel discussion of the need for the ERA. Other speakers were Gailya Paliga, president of NC NOW; Roberta Madden of RATIFY ERA-NC; Marena Groll, founder of NC4ERA; Audrey Muck, president of Triad NOW; and Dr. Michael Pisapia, assistant professor of politics and international affairs at Wake Forest University.

The program was held at Wake Forest University, whose Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department sponsored the event.

Lead organizations joining the nonpartisan Alliance include the NC Business and Professional Women, American Association of University Women of NC, Democratic Women of NC, League of Women Voters of NC, NC4ERA, NC National Organization for Women, RATIFY ERA-NC, and the Women’s Forum of NC. Other member organizations of NCWU are cordially invited to join the Alliance. To do so, please see www.era-nc.org.