How to Update the Equal Rights Amendment By Ari Elorreaga Smart Ass Fellow Enshrined and practiced equality is overdue in 2020. In legislation, this manifests as the Equal Rights Amendment, which began as the Women’s Movement’s Mount Everest. Born out of a desire for fully protected equality under law, it has faced opposition in the form of ratification delay, counter-movements, blatant dismissal, and burial by “more pressing” legislative issues. This simple goal, uniform protection for all genders, is critical for historically disenfranchised groups like women, LGBTQ+, and minority races. The original ERA had a limited focus on legal distinctions between the sexes. It gained traction in the 1960s and 1970s within Gloria Steinem’s and Betty Friedan’s Second Wave feminism. However, the proposal failed to be ratified due to a counter-movement, industry backlash, and partisan legislative attacks. Phyllis Schlafly and the more traditional female homemakers of the 70s strongly opposed, and even took offense, to an amendment that proposed men and women be considered the same under the law. The Stop ERA movement perceived the amendment as an affront to their way of life. On top of this dissent, corporate insurance companies heavily fought the ERA to maintain their ability to apply different policies to men and women on the basis of biological difference. Women often had higher premiums for life insurance and auto insurance. Republicans in Congress adamantly attacked the ERA on the grounds of rightward bound ideology. For decades now, the ERA has idled in Congress untouched and unratified. Meanwhile, the concept of equality has broadened through increased social justice awareness. Simultaneously, threats within power structures have become newly apparent. The original idea for the ERA, proposed in 1923, needed an update for its reemergence in the 60s and 70s. The same is true for our current moment. The old definition for non-ubiquitous “equality” doesn’t cut it. It’s time for a rewrite that includes transgender individuals, people of all colors, all religions, and all sexes (with the inclusive understanding that gender and sexuality are spectrums.) An Equal Rights Amendment in
2020 needs to expand beyond sex. It needs to include contingencies for diverse races, socioeconomic backgrounds, and all frequently disenfranchised identities. With explicit equality, social justice movements such as #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, and LGBTQ+ Advocacy, would be legally uplifted. Such legal backing would put a more inclusive society within reach. As the US has diversified, universal legal inclusion of identities is beyond due. The absence of an Equal Rights Amendment in the Constitution means an absence of equality in social practice. The 20th century ERA’s failure to be ratified and to include broader identities enables exclusion, discrimination, and disadvantages in the workplace, healthcare, systems of authority, and has made the disenfranchised heavily marginalized during times of crisis. Challenges are ubiquitous in the COVID-19 pandemic, but even more so for women, people of color, and marginalized communities. It is easy to say that an abstract concept like generalized equality can take a backseat to such daily real-time crises, but this time of panic makes the ERA even more crucial as the flaws in our society are illuminated. COVID-19 has made inequality abundantly clear. The first step to solving these social gaps is the creation of an equality safetynet. “[The ERA] is like an IUD for rights.”
“A revised ERA necessarily includes provisions that establish both equal and reasonable compensation for equivalent work from all people regardless of race, gender, or sexuality. ” The priorities of an ERA rewrite should focus firstly on determinants of equal opportunity and quality of life. Pay equity analysis is essential for this. In 2020, women continue to be paid 29% less than men for equivalent work. Mothers encounter an even larger payment discrepancy. Women generally are paid 81% of a man’s salary; mothers can subtract 7% per child from that 81%. Race leads to further salary subtractions. Women from non-white racial and ethnic backgrounds earn on average three fourths of what a white man does.
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