RATIFY ERA-NC

Listen to the interview with author Jessica Neuwirth on The Diane Rehm Show!

by Ellie Kinnaird (former state senator and mayor of Carrboro)

Last year, I attended a program advocating for passage of the long-defunct Equal Rights Constitutional Amendment: “Equality of Rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”

Arising out of the passion of the women’s movement, many of us worked hard to persuade the General Assembly to pass the ERA. But the opposition, led by Sen. Sam Ervin – our famous Watergate hero – and Phyllis Schlafly was working just as hard. While we came within one vote, North Carolina’s conservatism just couldn’t be overcome, and its defeat was the nail in the coffin of the Amendment….Read Kinnaird’s entire guest column in the Chapel Hill News

National Women’s Law Center          nwlc.org/povertydata

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told a packed Lisner Auditorium on Friday that she sees one glaring error in the U.S. Constitution: It lacks an amendment that promises equal rights for women. Read the story here at GW Hatchet by staff writer Avery Anapol.

By Katie McLaughlin, CNN

Can you imagine pregnancy being a fireable offense? How about job security hinging on your weight or the softness of your hands? What if you couldn’t open a bank account or establish a line of credit unless you had a husband to cosign for you? What if you had the grades to attend a school like Princeton, but your gender kept you on the other side of those hallowed, ivy-covered halls?

It was not so long ago that this was the reality for women. If you’re 45 or older, you were born into this world… cont.

Drafted by a suffragette in 1923, the Equal Rights Amendment has been stirring up controversy ever since. Many opponents considered it dead when a 10-year ratification push failed in 1982, yet its backers on Capitol Hill, in the Illinois statehouse and elsewhere are making clear this summer that the fight is far from over.

Read the full AP story by David Crary