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Commentary - May 16, 2009 - Printable Version
- It's Time for the Reversal of a Custer Decision
by Robin Buckallew
Once upon a time, in a land not so far away, a revolution was fought, a war to free one country from the bonds that tied them to another. After a time, a constitution was written, creating a new law for a new country. There was much rejoicing, because this constitution, unlike those that had preceded it in the history of human kind, gave rights to everyone equally. All were recognized under the law as being able to govern themselves, and were allowed to enjoy freedom and the quest for prosperity under the laws of a newly developed democracy. All, that is, except….. About a century after the first war, another war was fought, this time a civil war between two regions of the same country. A country, still struggling to find an identity, about to be torn asunder by differences of opinion and differences of approach. In addition, there was that small problem of the “peculiar institution”, a sweet little euphemism for the not-so-sweet practice of slavery. After a time, the country was stitched back together, a little worse for the wear, and new amendments were added to the constitution, in hopes of rectifying what had been done wrong earlier. There was much rejoicing, because, with this amendment, the constitution gave rights to everyone equally. All were recognized under the law as being able to govern themselves, and were allowed to enjoy freedom and the quest for prosperity under the laws of a newly enlightened democracy. All, that is, except….
As we began the 21st century, there was still a peculiar little quirk about the US constitution, one that many people seem to be totally unaware exists. This little quirk, first of omission, then of commission, simply and quietly fails to recognize half of the humans that live within the boundaries of the United States of America. Following the Civil War, the move to grant equality to all was a very inclusive movement. Women, a key force in bringing the horrors of slavery to an end, through their advocacy, their tireless abolition work, and their labors as nurses and in other key roles in battlefields and homes around the country, were part of the move to recognize all humans as...well, human. Women’s rights advocates shared the stage with advocates of equal rights for all regardless of skin color. Eloquent woman speakers stood up to make their case, to let it be known that they had a brain underneath their beautiful hair, and they wanted the same opportunities that were considered the natural rights of men. These women were willing to risk ostracism by their community, threats, slurs, libel, slander, and even arrest, because they believed this was a cause worth fighting for. Over time, however, the women’s rights movement was de-coupled from the civil rights movement. It was felt by some, even some sympathetic to the idea of equality for women, that including equal rights for women in the push for equal rights for all men would set back the possibility of getting equal rights for the newly freed former slaves. Women were pushed aside, and expected to go happily back to the kitchen, where they belonged, so that the men could get down to the important business of equality and all that. Women didn’t go back to the kitchen. They didn’t get their rights, either. In fact, it wasn’t until 1920 that women were given the right to vote as a federally protected right – nearly 50 years later.
Fast forward to the latter part of the 20th century. Women, although having the right to vote, still haven’t achieved equal status with men. A woman makes less money than a man (about 77 cents to the dollar, and that decreases even more if the woman happens to be black). Women have fewer opportunities. They still face sexism in the workplace when they do get jobs. They are often subject to sexual harassment, which doesn’t always take the form of demands for sexual favors. Sexual harassment takes many forms, and one of the most pervasive is the simple lack of respect often afforded women by their male peers or their male clients. Sometimes it’s subtle. Sometimes it’s…not. Perhaps the worst insult of all to most of us women is that still, all these years later, we women are still not included in the United States Constitution…except for the right to vote, of course, which is nice but hardly enough to guarantee equality in other ways. The answer? Simple. Add another amendment to the constitution, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). It was a simple amendment, stating “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex”. It was first introduced in Congress in 1923, but not passed by the required majority until 1972, after which it was sent to the states for ratification. The original seven-year deadline passed without enough states ratifying the amendment, and the deadline was extended until 1982. By the 1982 deadline, 35 states had ratified the amendment; it requires 38 states for an amendment to become part of the Constitution. Since 1982, the ERA had been re-introduced in every session of the Congress, but has not achieved the requisite ratifications. Fifteen states (Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, and Virginia) have remained resistant to the ratification of the amendment, and have kept it from becoming part of the highest law of the land.
I’m often told it doesn’t matter, anyway, because the Fourteenth Amendment extended equal rights to all citizens. In fact, the Fourteenth Amendment did do just that, but with an interesting twist. For the first time since the original Constitution was written, a citizen was defined as male. Although the Supreme Court did use the Fourteenth Amendment in a sex discrimination case in 1971 (more than 100 years after it was added to the Constitution), they have since declined in subsequent cases to elevate sex discrimination to the status of review under the Fourteenth Amendment. Because there is no federal Constitutional protection (other than the right to vote), Congress has the power to repeal anti-discrimination laws or permit sexual discrimination by a simple majority vote.
For much of human history, women have been subjected to laws that have allowed their oppression, and even permitted abuse. Women were considered property for a long time, and men had the right to beat their wives with a stick no bigger around than their thumb in order to keep them in line. Women couldn’t own property, vote, enter into contracts, or testify in court. Women couldn’t work outside the home, and the colleges were closed to women. Little by little, the advocacy of women (and men who believed in equal rights for women) has eroded most of these oppressions, and women are now part of the modern world, and are, for all appearances, totally incorporated into the modern global society. For most of us in the early 21st century, segregation of the sex roles appears to be a subject of the distant past, ancient history as it were. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case. It hasn’t even been a full hundred years since women won the right to vote. In the middle of the 20th century, women such as Rachel Carson were still being denied the right to study what they wanted, and she was unable to get her advanced degree in science, and use her education to its fullest because of her gender. As recently as 1981, when the first woman was nominated to the highest court in the land, the discourse in the country surrounding her nomination was crude and prurient, sexist and dismissive. Three years later, in 1984, Walter Mondale’s choice of Geraldine Ferraro to be his running mate in the Presidential election set up a veritable feeding frenzy. The conversation got very ugly in many cases, and the sexism was only thinly veiled; in many cases, not veiled at all. To this date, no woman has yet held the highest office in the land, though women have served as heads of state for many other countries around the world, including countries in the “less-enlightened” third world. In 2008, during the presidential primaries, with Hillary Clinton in the number 2 spot, much of the commentary centered around cleavage, tears, and jewelry. A woman was running for the highest office, a woman as well qualified for office as those she was running against, but the men were still doing what men often do when talking to a woman in their office – they were talking to her chest – or in this case, about it.
We need constitutional-level protection for the rights of women. We need to recognize the basic humanity of the “other half” of humanity. We need to acknowledge the citizenship status of women, and undo the horrible wrong that was done in the Fourteenth Amendment by defining citizens as male. Many people claim we don’t need the ERA. Many people claim sexism is dead. As a woman struggling through a world that still belongs mostly to the men, I can tell you for a fact, sexism is not dead. It’s not even sleeping. Sexism is still a very real concern for real women every day. We need the ERA, now more than ever, as the pendulum yoyos violently between reactionary Congresses and centrist to center-right Congresses. The Supreme Court is not at this point a bastion of safety for women, not with the current make up of the court, and the states are a mixed bag. Without the protection of the federal constitution, women’s hard won rights are only a majority Congressional vote away from dissolving. Women of the 21st century should not sit back complacently, secure in the idea that they have won. Without the protection of citizenship, full citizenship, we cannot consider ourselves secure as full participants in modern society. We need a change in direction, and we need it now, while we have a Congress that we might be able to consider reasonable.
More information about SJRes 10, HJRes 40, and HRes 757 is available here: http://www.equalrightsamendment.org/
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