Equal Rights Amendment Pros And Cons

Since 1923, activists have been trying to pass the Equal Rights Amendment or ERA, which originally stated, "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex." The amendment was ignored during the twenty’s, thirties, and forties until it was reintroduced in 1951. The ERA was then dropped until 1970 when feminists across america fought to reestablish and expand it to not only cover gender equality but racial equity and age discrimination as well. Although the Equal Rights Amendment was passed in 1972 by both the House and senate the amendment has yet to be put into the constitution because only 35 states have ratified it since then. The same 15 states that refused to ratify
Women are not treated equally in the united states. I believe this because women are not fairly represented in both the house of representatives, there is not enough legislation or public resources for women regarding sexual health and domestic and sexual violence, and there is still a ginormous wage gap.
The fight for gender equality in the united states can be traced back to the 1800s. America was founded as a democracy with the idea that all men are created equal but women were not given the same rights as men. Women were prohibited from being involved in the electoral process. Married women were forbidden from inheriting property, signing contracts, and serving on juries. Practicing law, medicine, and servicing in ministries was banned. When women were allowed to work they were paid less than half of what men were paid for the same work. (Women’s) From these inequalities the first american feminists arose. Women such as Christine de Pizan and Florence Nightingale published essays about suffrage and allowing women to participate in the military as nurses (History). Not only did many feminists fight for gender equality they also fought to end slavery. In 1848, an avid feminist and abolitionist Elizabeth Cady Stanton held the first women’s rights convention in
The religious conservatives that control both the house and senate believe in restricting women’s reproductive rights and contraceptive use. The rights for a man to buy condoms, get a vasectomy, or even get a prostate exam have never been in question, but a woman must go through an invasive physical examination to even be considered for birth control. In the supreme court case of Roe v. Wade in 1973 ruled that banning abortions is illegal unless the procedure would harm the mother or take her life (McBride). Texas governor Rick Perry (R) signed a bill that could lead to the closure of most abortion clinics and resource clinics such as Planned Parenthood the teen pregnancy rates have grown from 35,063 in 2011 to 43,335 in 2014