Forty years ago, I supported the Equal Rights Amendment, and when it passed Congress, I thought it was a done deal. I did not anticipate that the included ten year time limit for ratification by the states would expire without it garnering the necessary three fourths. Last week, the ERA was reintroduced. Although some of the right-wing arguments against it are now passé, many of them remain the same, and I anticipate a tough fight, considering Republican wishes that poor and middle class women be regarded as chattel, property to be passed from father to husband, and kept barefoot and pregnant.
This piece is by Rep. Lynn Wolsey (D-CA).
It is with great pride that I stand with this bipartisan group in support of the long-overdue Equal Rights Amendment. I can’t help but think of the words of our former colleague and feminist pioneer Pat Schroeder, when she was asked if being a mother would get in the way of her duties as a member of Congress. She said: “I have a brain and a uterus, and I use both.”
I thought that summed it up pretty well. Close to forty years later, we’re still facing the same obstacles, the same glass ceiling, the same unfair treatment. Whether we “use both” or not – for women who have children and those who choose not to – gender discrimination is persistent and pervasive.
We can’t afford to miss this opportunity to pass the Equal Rights Amendment. Not when women still – still – have to work almost through the weekend in order to earn what a man makes Monday through Friday. Not when women’s health care is under assault, as we saw earlier this year with the attempted de-funding of Title X and Planned Parenthood. Not when the Supreme Court of the United States is throwing out class-action lawsuits from women claiming years of pay discrimination on the job.
Here’s the text of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment, Section 1: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <The Hill>
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Isn’t it amazing how familiar many of those arguments sound? Can’t you picture them coming from McConnell or Boehner? I can almost feel the hate from the InsaniTEA and Theocon wings of the Republican Party now.
Of course, although my humor sometimes drifts to male chauvinist pig mode, I fully support equal rights. In 1972, I promoted a woman to a management position over five men. Three quit, rather than work under a woman. I hired one man and two women to replace them. When she asked why I chose her, I told her that she was the best man for the job. 😉
Pass the ERA!
13 Responses to “A Generation of Republican Misogyny”
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How about we just return to that part of the declaration of independence that says
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Or is that just to hard for us to believe in anymore?
It 😥 was that “men” part they are trying to keep intact. Women don’t count.
Actually, Judi is right. The founding fathers intended that the right’s Mark quoted were for free males who owned property only. Fortunately we have grown beyond them. Unfortunately, we have not grown far enough.
The reasons this never was ratified was due to idiots like Phyllis Schlafly proclaiming we would have to use unisex bathrooms and other equally inane reasons.
I used to wonder then if she used the same bathroom as her husband…
A lot of people got RepunbliCONed.
I remember all that Republican bullshit back then about how adoption of the ERA would mean unisex public bathrooms and loss of privacy. Republicans have always been big liars!
And just a few years earlier, republicans and big corporations were financing the women’s rights movement in the 1960s, when I was involved. At the time I failed to recognize that they just wanted women in the work force so they could kill the family wage.
Hell, I HATE all public restrooms! I dump my gravel in the woods, like the bears do! 😈 👿
That’s bearly tolerable. 😛
All I can think is : Here we go again—We will face the same overtly sexist objections , an increase in discriminatory reactions– actually the reaction has already begun– I was a professional in my career– but 10 years ago I left a position mainly because a male , less qualified, was hired into an equal position, for $8000.00 more than I was making– even tho I had to do much of his job for him!!–Now in recent days the denial of basic health care through the attack on Planned Parenthood , the criminalization of miscarriages–I could go on and on– The Republican push to deny any rights to women– to keep us uppity females 2nd class– barefoot , pregnant and dependent on the kindness of men—My Golly what would this country come to if women had equal rights—!!
Now republicans are trying to keep all of us (men and women) barefoot and dependent on the kindness of the corporations…the new American slavery!
True, Jerry, but it’s a matter of degree.
Phyllis, it would not be fit for Republicans.