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Essay on the equal rights amendment
Essay on the equal rights amendment
Debate the advantages and disadvantages of the Equal Rights Amendment
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"Everyone in our democracy deserves to be treated with fairness and justice, and to have that right in our constitution," stated former First Lady Lady Bird Johnson (Eisler and Hixson 419). Presently, half of our nation is not protected under the Constitution (Eisler and Hixson 419). The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was proposed in 1923 when Alice Paul concluded that women, although they had the right to vote, were not specifically protected from sexual discrimination by the Constitution. Seventy-five years have passed since the amendment was first introduced, and women still have not secured equal rights under law. By examining the history of the ERA and the opposition it has encountered, I will show why it was defeated in 1982 and determine if the ERA still has a future.
In 1920, women gained the right to vote by the passage of the nineteenth amendment. After this monumental event, the National Women's Party (NWP), led by Alice Paul, split form the National Women's Suffrage Association (NAWSA)(Mayo and Frye 77). The NWP felt that human liberty "as a matter of right and justice" (Mayo and Frye 77). To achieve this, the "Lucretia Mott Amendment," drafted by Alice Paul, was introduced to Congress in 1923 (Eisler and Hixson 420). This forerunner to the current ERA stated, "Men and Women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and in every place subject to jurisdiction" (Eisler and Hixson 429).
The amendment was met with strong opposition. The opponents of the amendment had two main arguments: protective legislation and the role of women in society. Many social reformers felt the amendment would invalidate legislation protection women in the work force. Florence Kelley, secretary of the National Consu...
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...ity Press, 1986.
Marshall, Susan E. "Who Speaks for American Women? The Future of Antifeminism." The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 515 (1991): 60.
Mayo, Edith and Jerry K. Frye. "ERA: Postmortem of a Failure in Political Communication." Hoff-Wilson 76-89.
"Rediscovering American Women: A Chronology Highlighting Women's History in the United States." Issues in Feminism. Ed. Sheila Ruth. Mountain View: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1998. 494-509.
"Reviving the Equal Rights Amendment." America 149 (1983): 342-343.
Rhoades, Heather. "ERA Fight - 1990s Style." The Progressive Nov. 1992: 14.
Sklar, Kathryn Kish. "Why Were Most Women Opposed to the ERA in the 1920's?" Hoff-Wilson 25-35.
"Thomas Legislative Information on the Net." The Library of Congress. http://thomas.loc.gov/home/thomas2.html. 17 November 1998.
(Nugent, p. 116) The amendment granted woman’s suffrage, and was the fruit of many years of labor of several women’s rights groups, such as the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and prominent women’s rights activists, such as Susan B. Anthony. The amendment expanded the bounds of popular democracy, bringing attention to women who felt increasingly ignored as participants in the political system (Piott, p. 166). Being the inalienable right of any citizen, the right to vote inevitably expanded the political freedom of American women, and also opened other doors of opportunity to them; they could advocate for more job opportunities, better economic security, and advantageous marital and family
This investigation addresses the following question: How important was Phyllis Schlafly’s role in the defeat of the U.S. Equal Rights Amendment? In order to evaluate her importance, this investigation will address several factors that contributed to the defeat of the ERA, such as the negative portrayal of women by the press, the decriminalization of abortion, the split between feminists who wanted the ERA to pass and those who believed that its passage would lead to the deterioration of women’s protective laws, and the role of the Phyllis Schlafly and her Stop ERA campaign. One source used in this investigation, “Stop ERA,” is evaluated for its insight into Phyllis Schlafly’s plan on how to campaign against the ERA, as she was the author of this document. The second source, an excerpt from the article “The Equal Rights Amendment: A Constitutional Basis for Equal Rights of Women,” will be analyzed for its professional, relatively unbiased opinions; this article was written for the Yale Law Journal in 1971, meaning that it consists of a concrete legal analysis of the amendment from the time period in which it was being ratified.
In his Sixty-seven Theses, Zwingli argued that scripture, and not tradition, is the norm for faith. The Sixty-seven Theses were composed in preparation for the first public Zurich disputation, in which Zwingli defended his stance against that of the tradition of the church, which was represented by Johann Faber, who was a representative of the bishop. The council of Zurich had declared that the basis for judgment for the disputation would be scripture, thus giving Zwingli an advantage (Lindberg 170). Zwingli was therefore able to argue that scripture is a priori the only foundation for church practice and theology, and his subsequent arguments in the Sixty-seven Theses followed from that foundation.
The Equal Rights Amendment began its earliest discussions in 1920. These discussions took place immediately after two-thirds of the states approved women's suffrage. The nineteenth century was intertwined with several feminist movements such as abortion, temperance, birth control and equality. Many lobbyists and political education groups formed in these times. One such organization is the Eagle Forum, who claims to lead the pro-family movement. On the opposite side of the coin is The National Organization for Women, or NOW, which takes action to better the position of women in society. Feminism is the most powerful force for change in our time. The Equal Rights Amendment has been a powerfully debated subject for decades. Having passed the Senate with a vote of 84-8, it failed to get the requisite thirty-eight states to ratify it. Many discussions and arguments arise over the continued push for the Equal Rights Amendment. The need for change must be a consensus and achieved both nationally and at the state level. The attempt to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment continues, but with few supports left, it appears to have lost its momentum.
MacLean, Nancy. A. The American Women's Movement, 1945-2000. A Brief History with Documents. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin, a.k.a.
In the last 10 years (2003–2012), Airbus has received 7,714 orders while delivering 4,503, and Boeing has received 7,312 orders while delivering 4,091 (Aircraft Compare 2013). Even though competition is intense, each company regularly accuses the other of receiving unfair state aid from their respective governments. But what really matters is what fits the airline’s needs. For longer ranges, Airbus builds perfect aircrafts for that sector. It’s a tossup for the midrange sector, but then it comes to shorter ranges, Boeing seems to have best fit.
The first state to grant women complete voting rights was Wyoming in 1869. Three other western states—Colorado (1893), Utah (1896), and Idaho (1896)—followed shortly after NAWSA was founded. But prior to 1910, only these four states allowed women to vote”(The Women's Rights Movement). During 1910, the word “feminist” surfaced as a term for “new women” and this is what followed their movement; Western states continued to lead the way in granting women’s suffrage. Washington state allowed women the right to vote in 1910. “Between 1910 and 1914, the NAWSA intensified its lobbying efforts and additional states extended the franchise to women: Washington, California, Arizona, Kansas, and Oregon. In Illinois, future Congresswoman Ruth Hanna McCormick helped lead the fight for suffrage as a lobbyist in Springfield, when the state legislature granted women the right to vote in 1913; this marked the first such victory for women in a state east of the Mississippi River”(The Women's Rights Movement). Below is an inserted photograph of the National American Woman Suffrage
Katz, Marilyn. "History and Feminist Theory." History and Theory. Wesleyan University: Wiley, 1992. . Print.
“The Civil Rights Act of 1866 defined all persons born in the United States as citizens and listed certain rights of all citizens, including the right to testify in court, own property, make contracts, bring lawsuits, and enjoy full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property” (Berkin, Cherny, Gormly, Miller, 2013, 430). To forever protect the freed people’s rights as citizens the Fourteenth Amendment was created. The Fourteenth Amendment was still flawed. Woman’s rights supporters Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony “complained that the amendment, for the first time, introduced the word male into the constitution in connection with voting and rights” (Berkin, Cherny, Gormly, Miller, 2013, 431). After much Congressional debate in February 1869 Congress approved the Fifteenth Amendment. It “prohibited both federal and state governments from restricting a person’s right to vote because of race, color, or previous condition of servitude” (Berkin, Cherny, Gormly, Miller, 2013, 435). Stanton and Anthony were against this amendment too because it “ignored restrictions based on sex” (Berkin, Cherny, Gormly, Miller, 2013, 435). The amendment still didn’t lessen the
Schneider, Dorothy. American Women in the Progressive Era 1900-1920. New York: Facts on File, 1993.
But when the “Women’s Movement,” is referred to, one would most likely think about the strides taken during the 1960’s for equal treatment of women. The sixties started off with a bang for women, as the Food and Drug Administration approved birth control pills, President John F. Kennedy established the President's Commission on the Status of Women and appointed Eleanor Roosevelt as chairwoman, and Betty Friedan published her famous and groundbreaking book, “The Feminine Mystique” (Imbornoni). The Women’s Movement of the 1960’s was a ground-breaking part of American history because along with African-Americans another minority group stood up for equality, women were finished with being complacent, and it changed women’s lives today.
Shaw, Susan M., and Janet Lee. Women's Voices, Feminist Visions: Classic and Contemporary Readings. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012. Print.
Hewitt, Nancy. "Beyond the Search for Sisterhood: American Women's History in the 1980's."Social History. Vol. 10: No. 3 (1985): 299-321
History of Women in the United States. 9 November 2005. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia Online. 15 November 2005 .
Boeing is one of the largest and most powerful American multinational corporations which mostly designs, manufactures and sells airplanes along with rotorcrafts, rockets and satellites. The corporation lost its market share to Airbus in the late 1990s, so it was in need of a new aircraft that would generate revenues by creating value for customers.