Equal Rights Amendment

(noun)

The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed to guarantee equal rights for women. The ERA was originally written by Alice Paul and, in 1923, it was introduced in the Congress for the first time. In 1972, it passed both houses of Congress and went to the state legislatures for ratification. The ERA failed to receive the requisite number of ratifications before the final deadline mandated by Congress of June 30, 1982 expired and so it was not adopted.

Related Terms

Examples of Equal Rights Amendment in the following topics:

  • 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.
    • The movement grew with legal victories such as the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
    • Amongst the most significant legal victories of the movement after the formation of NOW were a 1967 Executive Order extending full Affirmative Action rights to women, Title IX and the Women's Educational Equity Act (1972 and 1974, respectively), Title X (1970, health and family planning), the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (1974), the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, the legalization of no-fault divorce (although not allowed in all states until 2010), a 1975 law requiring the U.S.
    • The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution.

  • 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.
    • They also became the first women to picket for women's rights in front of the White House.
    • The resulting scandal, and its negative impact on the country's international reputation at a time when Wilson was trying to build a reputation for himself and the nation as an international leader in human rights, may have contributed to Wilson's decision to publicly call for the United States Congress to pass the Suffrage Amendment.
    • 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.
    • Evaluate how the actions of the National Women's Party pressured Wilson to support the Suffrage Amendment

  • Legally Free, Socially Bound

    • Though the Reconstruction Amendments guaranteed them equal rights, African-Americans experienced widespread discrimination after the War.
    • In 1868 the 14th amendment granted full U.S. citizenship to African-Americans, and the 15th amendment, ratified in 1870, extended the right to vote to black males.
    • Together these amendments were known as the Reconstruction Amendments.
    • From 1865 to 1877, under protection of Union troops, some strides were made toward equal rights for African-Americans.
    • While legally the Reconstruction Amendments had granted African Americans certain legal rights, in social practice they remained second-class citizens and were subject to discrimination and violence.

  • The Reconstruction Amendments

    • The 14th Amendment provided the foundation of equal rights for all U.S. citizens, including African-Americans.
    • The 14th Amendment was proposed in 1866 and ratified in 1868, guaranteeing United States citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States and granting them federal civil rights.
    • The 15th Amendment, proposed in late February 1869 and passed in early February 1870, decreed that the right to vote could not be denied because of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude".
    • The amendment provided the foundation for equal rights for all US citizens, including African-Americans, and a framework for their implementation in the former Confederate states.
    • The Equal Protection Clause requires each state to provide equal protection under the law to all people within its jurisdiction.

  • Civil Rights and Voting Rights

    • Further, it barred discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, or gender, and established an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
    • Congress asserted its authority to legislate about civil rights under three parts of the United States Constitution: its power to regulate interstate commerce under Article One (section 8), its duty to guarantee all citizens equal protection of the laws (under the Fourteenth Amendment), and its duty to protect voting rights (under the Fifteenth Amendment).
    • The bill would soon be followed by the equally momentous Voting Rights Act, which effectively ended the disenfranchisement of blacks in the South.
    • Goldwater had supported previous attempts to pass Civil Rights legislation in 1957 and 1960 as well as the 24th Amendment outlawing the poll tax; however, he rejected the idea of the national government regulating such acts.
    • In January 1964, the Twenty-Fourth Amendment, prohibiting the imposition of poll taxes on voters, was finally ratified.

  • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and the Movement for Women's Suffrage

    • Women's suffrage in the United States was achieved gradually, at state and local levels, during the late 19th century and early 20th century, culminating in 1920 with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution which gave women the right to vote.
    • Their object was to secure an amendment to the Constitution in favor of women's suffrage, and they opposed passage of the Fifteenth Amendment unless it was changed to guarantee to women the right to vote.
    • Together, the two women traversed the United States giving speeches and attempting to persuade the government that society should treat men and women equally.
    • In the decade following ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, both Stanton and Anthony increasingly took the position, first advocated by Victoria Woodhull, that the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments actually did give women the right to vote.
    • They argued that the Fourteenth Amendment, which defined citizens as "all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof," included women and that the Fifteenth Amendment provided all citizens with the right to vote.

  • Marriage Equality and the Courts

    • Several court ruling through the 21st century paved the way for marriage equality to be realized in 2015.
    • Shortly thereafter, the Supreme Court also ruled that the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996 was unconstitutional because it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
    • Supreme Court case in which the Court held in a 5-4 decision that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S.
    • While the achievement of legally-recognized marriage equality was an important step forward for the rights of same-sex couples, LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning) people continue to face immense obstacles to equality in the United States.
    • Describe the path towards marriage equality from Lawrence v.

  • The Bill of Rights

    • Even though these limitations were not explicit in the Bill of Right's text, it took additional Constitutional Amendments and numerous Supreme Court cases to extend the same rights to all U.S. citizens.
    • First Amendment: establishment clause, free exercise clause; freedom of speech, of the press, and of assembly; right to petition.
    • Second Amendment: establishes the right of the state to having militia and the right of the individual to keep and bear arms.
    • Sixth Amendment: guarantees trial by jury and rights of the accused; Confrontation Clause, speedy trial, public trial, right to counsel.
    • Ninth Amendment: protects the rights not specifically enumerated in the Constitution.

  • The Radical Record

    • Radical Republicans strongly opposed slavery during the war and after the war distrusted ex-Confederates, demanding harsh policies for punishing the former rebels, and emphasizing equality, civil rights, and voting rights for the freedmen.
    • The law stated that African-Americans were to be granted equal rights as citizens.
    • For instance, the Fourteenth Amendment, whose principal drafter was John Bingham, was designed to put the key provisions of the Civil Rights Act into the Constitution.
    • Full federal enforcement of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments did not occur until passage of legislation in the mid-1960s as a result of the African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955–1968).
    • During Reconstruction, he fought to minimize the power of the ex-Confederates and guarantee equal rights to the freedmen.

  • The Triumph of Congressional Reconstruction

    • The 13th Amendment abolishing slavery was ratified in 1865.
    • The 15th Amendment, passed in February 1870, decreed that the right to vote could not be denied on the basis of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude".
    • In addition, Congress required that each state draft a new state constitution--which would have to be approved by Congress--and that each state ratify the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and grant voting rights to black men.
    • Uncle Sam is at left, and another figure with a monkey stands at right.
    • Each figure makes a statement relating to issues of racial equality, citizenship, suffrage, and Gorham's views.