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Essay On Does The Constitution Need An Equal Rights Amendment

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Does the U.S. Constitution Need an Equal Rights Amendment?
Over the course of the year we have touched on many different topics of gender studies and politics. The topic that appealed to me the most was the Equal Rights Amendment. The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is an amendment that was invented to obtain equal rights for both males and females in society. In 1972 the ERA was sent to the states to be ratified but the amendment fell two states short and was therefore not included in the constitution. In this article, many scholars argue that the ERA is needed to increase the standard of law that is now used to settle sex discrimination cases. They also believe it would help women that believe they are being denied equal rights. These assumptions …show more content…

The authors of this article show that the ERA will not directly affect the people but that it would indirectly effect the people. They really do not have a set stance on whether we truly need this amendment today or not. I on the other hand fully believe that we need the ERA in the Constitution. The ERA is a great foundation of economic equality and without that foundation, women will never be equal. Alice Paul, a women’s right activist, once quoted, “When you put your hand to the plow, you can’t put it down until you get to the end of the row.” Phyllis Schlafly started the campaign of ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment in 1923 and I am beyond certain that the ERA activists today will not stop until it is ratified and accepted into the constitution. At the end of ERA battle, Sonia Johnson made an incredible and uplifting statement for all women. She said, “I am sure I am not the only feminist who is occasionally clear-sighted enough to be grateful to Phyllis Schlafly for making us have to fight so hard for the Equal Rights Amendment. Whether in the end this amendment is the way women will achieve legal equality or not, it is still true that the struggle over its ratification has provided the greatest political training ground for women in the history of the world”

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