Equal Rights Amendment: Victory Is Within Reach

Source: Wikimedia Commons

There is a generation of young people today who may have learned of the attempts to pass the Equal Rights Amendment in their women’s study classes. Although the ERA was passed by Congress in 1972, it was sent to the states to ratify within a seven year period. It fell short by three states of the 38 states required. On June 4th, US News and World Report painted a cautious perspective, noting that it is too soon to celebrate: Equal Rights Amendment, Left for Dead in 1982, Gets New Life in the #MeToo Era.

The state of Illinois voted to ratify this constitutional amendment that would formally prohibit gender discrimination. It appears that the #MeToo movement was instrumental in resurrecting the ERA.

For many of us, the inception and push for the ERA was a time of angst. It was a clash between Feminists and the ultra-conservative Eagles’ Forum run by Phyllis Schlafly. She was opposed to women working, child care legislation, and abortion.

The ERA eventually ran out of time for ratification. Nonetheless women continued working and, in the absence of the ERA, the pay gap remained. When you consider that some 30 years ago women were earning 64 cents for every dollar that a man earned and look at earnings today—it hasn’t changed much.

Source: Radcliffe Women: Equal Pay for Equal Work, 1943

There is some disparity regarding the actual numbers in dollars and cents. Pew's research estimates that for both part time and full time “women earn 84 percent of what men earn.” Whereas the American Association of University Women and the National Women's Law Center's put the figure at 78 percent for full time workers in 2013. Whether it is 77 percent, 78 percent, or 84 percent, it still means that women earn less than men.

How does this affect women emotionally?

According to a study reported in Social Science and Medicine:

“Mood disorders, such as depression and anxiety, are more prevalent among women than men. This disparity may be partially due to the effects of structural gender discrimination in the work force, which acts to perpetuate gender differences in opportunities and resources and may manifest as the gender wage gap. . . .

Structural forms of discrimination may explain mental health disparities at the population level. Beyond prohibiting overt gender discrimination, policies must be created to address embedded inequalities in procedures surrounding labor markets and compensation in the workplace.” (Platt, Prins, Bates, Keyes (2016)

Positive suggestions to help fix the problem

Three issues seem to be hindering women's advancement to pay parity: the decision to have children, the double standard in which women are expected to work harder to prove themselves, and finally, what might be called "failed feminism." I’ve explored this in greater detail in Women’s Pay Gap: It is Children, Expectations, or Feminism?

Today, there continues to be serious concerns about women’s rights, even as opportunities have increased. In 1991, for Sisterhood Betrayed: Women in the Workplace and the All About Eve Complex, (St, Martin's Press) I talked with Linda Ellerbee, a pioneering and award-winning journalist. She stated:

“Every time I think that we are the ones who defeated the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), I get angry. My answer to these young women, who say feminism is so unattractive, is that we are head of more than half of the households in the country. Seventy-five percent of the men who are supposed to pay child support don’t. We still earn sixty-four cents on the dollar. You think feminism is unattractive? Try welfare!”

Are programs in Women’s Studies glossing over the harsh realities of the feminist movement? The National Partnership for Women and Families propose a three-step plan for change:

• Create a pipeline to good jobs and higher wages
• Encourage and support the retention and advancement of women in the workplace
• Help ensure fair, nondiscriminatory treatment at work

It is also vital to preserve family relationships for mothers who work outside of the home. As the partnership notes: "Women are nearly half the workforce and breadwinners in nearly two-thirds of families, yet workplace policies have not kept pace."

What was all too true over two decades ago is still true today. Until the power structure of corporate and political America is altered to better accommodate women and their families, we will need a set of strategies for dealing with the workplace that will help more women to succeed. And we need to pass the Equal Rights Amendment. There is work to be done.

The above photo, with women supporting Equal Pay for Equal Work, is from a 1943 photograph taken at Radcliffe in Cambridge. Now nearly 60 years later, women at another Cambridge institution have made news for their efforts toward and success with equality. Gender Equality and Gratitude: How Women at MIT persevered.

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Copyright 2018 Rita Watson