Equal Rights Ammendment (ERA)

Examples of Equal Rights Ammendment (ERA) in the following topics:

• Civil Rights Under Nixon

  • The Nixon administration did not prioritize civil rights to the extent of the previous Kennedy and Johnson administrations.
  • A majority of fearful white Americans began to prioritize "law and order" over the advancements of civil rights.
  • Nixon's civil rights efforts also included his endorsement of the Equal Rights Ammendment (ERA).
  • The ERA was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution which outlawed any form of legal discrimination based on sex.
  • The ERA failed to receive the requisite number of ratifications before the final deadline mandated by Congress of June 30, 1982 expired, so it was not adopted.

• Second-Wave Feminism

  • Whereas first-wave feminism focused mainly on overturning legal obstacles to gender equality (i.e. voting rights, property rights), second-wave feminism broadened the debate to a wide range of issues: sexuality, family, the workplace, reproductive rights, de facto inequalities, and official legal inequalities.
  • It also tried and failed to add the Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution.
  • Many feminists view the second-wave feminist era as ending with the intra-feminism disputes of the Feminist Sex Wars , which ushered in the era of third-wave feminism.
  • The movement grew with legal victories such as the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
  • The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution.

• Separate But Equal

  • Separate but equal laws supported segregation in the south by stating that providing comparable public services did not violate equal rights.
  • While the Emancipation Proclamation and the Civil War amendments ended slavery and attempted to legislate equality, the violation of civil rights continued after the reconstruction era.
  • In particular the principle of separate but equal established conditions of legalsegregation in many southern states.
  • But the court ruled that the principle of separate but equal satisfied the requirements of the fourteenth amendment.
  • Describe the legal background for a policy of "separate but equal"

• Conclusion: The Effects of Reconstruction

  • The conditions of black Americans would not improve until the civil rights era of the 1950s and 60s.
  • Despite these failures, important landmarks in civil rights for black Americans were reached at that time.
  • The "Reconstruction Amendments" passed by Congress between 1865 and 1870 abolished slavery, gave black Americans equal protection under the law, and granted suffrage to black men.
  • Although these constitutional rights were eroded by racist violence and Jim Crow laws, blacks still began participating in politics, and these amendments established the legal groundwork for more substantive equality during the civil rights era of the 1950s and 60s.
  • The legalization of African-American marriage and family and the independence of black churches from white denominations were a source of strength during the Jim Crow era.

• The Women's Rights Movement

  • The women's rights movement refers to political struggles to achieve rights claimed for women and girls of many societies worldwide.
  • Whereas first-wave feminism focused mainly on suffrage and overturning legal obstacles to gender equality (i.e. voting rights, property rights), second-wave feminism broadened the debate to a wide range of issues: sexuality, family, the workplace, reproductive rights, de facto inequalities, and official legal inequalities.
  • Its major effort was trying to get the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) added to the United States Constitution, an effort in which they were defeated by anti-feminists led by Phyllis Schlafly, who argued against the ERA, saying women would be drafted into the military.
  • Movements emerged which demanded freedom of religion, the abolition of slavery, rights for women, rights for those who did not own property and universal suffrage.
  • However, the movement did fail, in 1982, in adding the Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution, coming up three states short of ratification.

• The Political Participation of Women

  • In the United States, the National Organization for Women (NOW) was created in 1966 with the purpose of bringing about equality for all women.
  • NOW was one important group that fought for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).
  • This amendment stated that "equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of sex."
  • Supporters believed it would guarantee women equal treatment.
  • ERAs have been introduced in subsequent sessions of Congress, but they have never been ratified.

• The Feminist Movement

  • The feminist movement refers to a series of campaigns for cultural, political, economic, and social equality for women.
  • In 1972, NOW and other women activist groups fought to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the Constitution, which affirmed that women and men have equal rights under the law.
  • Although passage failed, the women's rights movement has made significant inroads in reproductive rights, sexual harassment law, pay discrimination, and equality of women's sports programs in schools.
  • The proposed ERA did have unintended consequences.
  • The first wave of women's feminism focused on suffrage, while subsequent feminist efforts have expanded to focus on equal pay, reproductive rights, sexual harassment, and others.

• The Rights of Englishmen

  • "The rights of Englishmen" refers to unwritten constitutional rights and liberties, originating in Britain peaking in the Enlightenment.
  • These rights evolved and developed over several centuries and stages of Anglo-American history--peaking with the Enlightenment era.
  • It was not until the early seventeenth century that jurist Edward Coke interpreted Magna Carta to apply not only to the protection of nobles but to all subjects of the crown equally .
  • Essentially, Lockean conceptions of political rights included the right of man to determine the political structure that would oversee the protection of his natural rights.
  • Jurist Edward Coke interpreted Magna Carta to apply not only to the protection of nobles but to all subjects of the crown equally.

• The Women's Rights Movement

  • The National Woman's Party authored more than 600 pieces of legislation for women's equality, more than 300 of which were passed.
  • While non-partisan, the NWP directed much of its fire at President Woodrow Wilson when criticizing those responsible for the social situation in which women of the era lived.
  • They also became the first women to picket for women's rights in front of the White House.
  • After the ratification of the nineteenth amendment in 1920, the NWP turned its attention to eliminating other forms of gender discrimination, principally by advocating passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, which Paul drafted in 1923.
  • Alice Paul founded the NWP, the leading women's rights organization throughout the 1920s.

• State-Centered Theories

  • The laissez-faire era of United States economic history, which occurred around the turn of the 20th century—when the government generally left the economy unregulated—reflects a belief in market-driven theories of inequality.
  • This era of loose regulation gave way to an era of tight regulation of the economy, including the introduction of "trust-busting" or anti-monopoly laws.
  • Socialism is an economic and political system in which the state owns the majority industry, but resources are allocated based on a combination of natural rights and individual achievements.
  • Communism operates on the principle that resources should be completely equally distributed, on the basis that every person has a natural right to food, shelter, and generally an equal share of a society's wealth.
  • Accordingly, these theories propose that states should enact policies to prevent exploitation and promote the equal distribution of goods and wages.