We Need the Equal Rights Amendment

We only need one more state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, and we need the Congress to pass joint resolutions to ensure the ERA will go into effect. Urge both of your Senators and your Representative to cosponsor a joint resolution to lift the arbitrary deadline on the ERA.

Congress passed the ERA in 1972, and 35 of the 38 states needed for ratification acted. Then, the arbitrary deadline passed, was extended, and passed again. Congress could extend the deadline again, or eliminate it completely. It should do the latter, and do so quickly. Then, when the next state ratifies the ERA, it will go into effect two years later.

Why We Need the ERA

• In 1972 when the Equal Rights Amendment was first passed women earned .76 cents to a man’s dollar. Today more than 30 years later women earn .77 cents to a man’s dollar with African-American women earning .65 and Hispanic women earning .55 per $1 white men earn for doing the same work.
• There are only 7 countries that have not signed onto the CEDAW International Women’s Treaty (Convention for the Elimination of All Discrimination Against Women); the United States is one of those countries because we do not prohibit discrimination on account of sex in our Constitution.
• The US insisted that all countries drafting constitutions after World War II include a statement that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex; the US Constitution has no such clause.