The Equal Rights Amendment Essay -- Women Feminism Equality Essays

The tolerable Rights Awork forcedmentEquality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridgedby the get together States or by any body politic on account of sex.In 1923, this statement was admitted to Congress under the Equal RightsAmendment ( duration). The while was a proposed amendment to the United StatesConstitution reaching adjoinity between men and women under the law. If the Erawas passed, it would arouse made unconstitutional any laws that grant one sexdifferent rights than the other. However, in the 1970s, the Era was not passed,and wherefore did not mother law.The idea for an equal rights amendment first became acknowledged in theearly part of the twentieth century. In 1916, Alice Paul founded the NationalWomens company (NWP), a political party dedicated to establishing equal rightsfor women. Traditionally, women were viewed as weaker and wanting(p) to men. Thepurpose of the ERA was to prohibit any person from acting on this belief. AlicePaul viewed that compare under the law was the foundation essential to integralequality for women.In November of 1922, the NWP voted to work for a federal amendment thatcould guarantee womens equal rights regardless of legislatures indecisions.The NWP had 400 women lobbying for equality.Despite strong opposition by or so women and men, the NWP introduced andEqual Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1923. In order tobecome law, the amendment needed a two-thirds vote in both houses of thecongress of the United States, or a supporting petition of two-thirds of thestate legislatures. Then the amendment would do necessary ratification bythree-fourths of the states. However, it failed to get the two-thirds massrequired to move onto the states for approval. The proposed amendment alsofailed in following sessions until 1972, when it won a majority vote in Congress.The main objectives of the womens movement included equal fall in for equalwork, federal support for day-care centers, r ecognition of lesbian rights,continued legalisation of abortion, and the focus of serious attention on theproblems of rape, wife and child beating, and contrariety against older andminority women. The ERA would have addressed all of these issues if it werepassed.Had it been adopted, the ERA would have resolved the paradox of anoppressed majorit... ...t giving the Supreme speak to and federal agenciesauthority to spell let out the meaning of equal rights would be risky. Decisionsmade on such a level would be withal far removed from the ideas and desires of thepeople. Opponents felt that equal rights should be dealt with on a local orstate level where legislators can be voted out of position if the people do notlike some of the decisions made.Although the ERA did not pass, all of the actions made by NOW, NWP, andany of the other womens movements, have greatly aided women in their battleagainst sex discrimination in the work place, in educational institutions, andin their roles as wives and mothers, and finally fit(p) to rest the controversyover protective legislation and equal rights. the like the FourteenthAmendment, we are inclined to forget that the ERA was designed not to changevalues but to modify behavior of mainstream citizens by changing theconstitutional status of a particular group. The ERAs purpose was and is toprovide equality of opportunity through the Constitution and legal system forthose women who want to crystallize full personal and professional expectationswithin mainstream America.