Women’s Equality Day Inspiration & Action

Inspiration, Thursday Thoughts on Women’s Equality Day for Women, Women Entrepreneurs and Females in Business

An online petition came through my mail yesterday asking for signatures to make August 26th a national holiday circulated by The Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation in Syracuse. The email noted there are yet to be any national American holidays in honor of women, or any woman in our history. Stop and think about that for a moment and how it makes you feel remembering women make up 52% of the US population.

So what can women do today, August 26, 2021, to ensure others remember, and hopefully work on our behalf to make sure women are equal in all areas of life, business, and sports today and in the future besides signing an online petition? They can learn about the importance of trying to get the Equal Rights Amendment finally passed in congress.

If you aren’t aware of the ERA or why it should be passed, read about the ERA taken from http://www.AlicePaul.org website about the progress and importance of getting it passed and then share it with others you know:

•There are two movements to pass the ERA. The traditional route would require the ERA to be voted on again, requiring the amendment’s passage by two-thirds of each house of Congress and then ratification by 38 states. An alternative strategy would maintain the legal viability of the existing 35 state ratifications and attempt to gain three more state ratifications to complete the process and make the ERA the 28th Amendment to the Constitution.

•The 19th Amendment, granting women suffrage is the only mention of the word “woman” in the U.S. Constitution. Furthermore, the only right guaranteed to women by federal law is the right to vote.

•According to the American Association of University Women (AAUW), among full-time, year-round workers, women earn 77% of what men earn. This disparity increases even more for African American and Hispanic women. Additionally, women are half as likely to receive a pension, and those that do receive almost half as much. Social Security still defines women as dependents and therefore women who have been in the workforce for decades still receive lower payments.

•The most important effect of the ERA would be the clarification of the status of sex discrimination for the courts, the decisions of which still demonstrate confusion regarding such claims. For the first time, “sex” would be a suspect classification, like race, and would require the same level of “strict scrutiny” and have to meet the same high level of justification – a “necessary” relation to a “compelling” state interest – as the classification of race.

•The ERA would not make all single-sex institutions unconstitutional – only those whose aim is to perpetuate the historic dominance of one sex over the other. Single-sex institutions that work to overcome past discrimination are currently constitutional and are likely to remain so.

•The 14th Amendment, providing an equal protection clause to all U.S. citizens, was not originally intended to apply to women, as it predates the 19th Amendment. As proof of this, Susan B. Anthony voted in the 1872 presidential election, was arrested two weeks later, and was convicted the following year for illegal voting. At her trial, she attempted to use the 14th Amendment to defend her actions, but the judge ruled that the amendment did not apply to her because she was a woman.

•The Equal Rights Amendment would prevent a rollback of the legal advances women have gained. It is important to remember that as governments change from conservative to liberal, citizens, neither male nor female, should not be subject to lose their right to vote, their right to free speech, or any other of their constitutional rights due to a change of political opinion.

•The ERA does not add new laws to the U.S. Constitution; it only guarantees the rights currently within it. Issues like abortion, same-sex marriage, unisex bathrooms, and the female draft exist separately from the ERA and would not become law upon the ERA’s passage.

•The ERA is an amendment for both men and women – it is not just a woman’s issue. Issues of custody, employment, and fair wages are important to both sexes and an Equal Rights Amendment would guarantee equal legal rights without regard to sex.

•The ERA would affirm the purpose that began with the writing of the U.S. Constitution, the basic human right of constitutional protection.

For more information on the Equal Rights Amendment, visit www.equalrightsamendment.org.

I hope today’s blog post reminds you that women’s work is not done in securing total equality in America today. Women must continue to talk about and support the efforts of our foremothers and sisters today to get the ERA passed so women are equal to men under law. As actress Emma Watson said, “It is time we see gender as a spectrum instead of two sets of ideals.”

P.S. Go back up to the top of this post and click on the petition and sign it please! Thank you.