13/100 Pussy Hats and the ERA

I heard people asking “What do we do now?” after the hundreds of thousands of women and men marched and demonstrated against the newly inaugurated President. I’m a little worried women’s rights and…

I have a suggestion.

Does anyone remember the ERA? The Equal Right Amendment. That’s what the pink hat protests reminded me of yesterday. Mostly women, of all ages, from all walks of life and every state in the union out there showing the power of 50% of the population.

Women still make 80 cents on the $1.00 that men make in the United States.

The original wording of the ERA is as follows:

“Equality of rights under law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on the account of sex”

That was it. And declaring equal rights for women made people nervous.

The ERA was originally written in 1923, only three years after women received the right to vote in America. It was to Congress for the first time in 1923 and has had a long difficult journey that isn’t over yet. The yellow in the map below shows the story of the states that have yet to ratify the ERA amendment. Looks a little like another map doesn’t it?

The ratification process that passed out of Congress in 1972 and must be passed by a 38 (76%) state majority to become law. In the 2015–2016 Congressional session the ERA was introduced again this time the wording changed slightly as it as follows.

Section 1: Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.

Section 2: The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Section 3: This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.

When I marched for the ERA in 1980, we were dressed in white with an ERA NOW button on our jackets. That was . We thought it was only a matter of months before the ERA passed into law.

Women were making 57 cents to the $1.00 that men were making so things have change but not enough.

Shouldn’t there be an amendment that protects all woman? Especially now that some of those rights are being threatened by the new political climate?

Make sure woman are protected under the law. If your state hasn’t ratified the ERA that’s something to do, now.

And where do I get one of those pink hats?