So Then, Why Was There?

Grandma has A LOT of pins and other political memorabilia related to the Equal Rights Amendment, so this is definitely not the only time we will be focusing on it.  But grandma and I talked about this button quite a bit during our visit on Sunday, as the ERA largely failed because there was a time limit for ratification.

Quick recap on amendments: First, an amendment is proposed, either by Congress (with two-thirds of both the House and the Senate approving) or by two-thirds of the states submitting an application to Congress, who then must call for a Constitutional Convention (the latter has never actually happened.)  Once they bang out the details, they send it to the states for ratification, either by the state legislatures or a state convention (whoever proposed the amendment gets to decide,) and it must be ratified by three-forths of the states.

The Equal Rights Amendment was passed by the Senate on March 22, 1972, and sent to the states for ratification.  It reads:

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.

Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.

Seems reasonable.  However, Congress put a time limit of seven years for ratification.  There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution or law that requires time limits for ratification of amendments.  Technically, states still have the option to ratify an amendment that would prevent Congress from having “the power to abolish or interfere, within any State, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State.”  That would be a confusing contradiction of the 13th Amendment, but technically it could be ratified — it was passed by Congress and sent to the states with no time limit (it just happened to be like…one month before the Civil War broke out.)

So, why the time limit on the ERA?  It isn’t really clear, but I bet it has something to do with the face that there were only 13 women in the House and two women in the Senate.  There was also backlash by some conservatives such as Phyllis Schlafly, who spread ideas such that women who wanted to be homemakers would be dragged out of the kitchen and drafted into military combat, women would no longer have the protection of rape/sexual assault laws (because equality means it’s suddenly okay for people to commit crimes against you?) and other ridiculous things that don’t even deserve mention.

In the first year, 22 states ratified the ERA, but as opposition became more organized, victories were few and further between.  A few more states ratified the amendment in the 1970s, but even with an extension of the deadline to 1982, Indiana was the last state to ratify in 1977.  Some states even tried to revoke their ratification, but the courts have not looked on this favorably.

(Permission to use with credit to http://www.equalrightsamendment.org)

Some states have recently ratified the ERA — the Illinois Senate just passed it on April 11.  Yeah, like, a week ago.  Things are happening.  The deadline might’ve passed 35 years ago, but this issue hasn’t died.  So the question becomes, can they do that?  If states keep ratifying, can it still become an amendment?  If Illinois’ House ratifies passes the bill, it will become the 37th state to ratify the ERA, and 38 states need to ratify for it to become a constitutional amendment.  Is there a time limit on equality?  We might be coming close to a point where these questions will need to be answered.

It feels appropriate to let the Honorable Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg take us out:

“If I could choose an amendment to add to the Constitution, it would be the Equal Rights Amendment.  I think we have achieved that through legislation, but legislation can be repealed, it can be altered.

So I would like my granddaughters, when they pick up the Constitution, to see that notion — that women and men are persons of equal stature — I’d like them to see that is a basic principle of our society.”

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Uppity Women Unite!

Yesterday, I spent the day with my grandma looking at all of the buttons.  We brought some to lunch with us and had them spread out on the table at the restaurant, and the girl refilling coffee told us that she also collects political buttons!  She told us about this great company in Ann Arbor called The Pin Cause that creates buttons and donates part of the proceeds to the causes they support — they have great ones for gun violence and the science march right now, so definitely check out their website.

One of grandma’s favorite buttons was this one:

(She’s wearing it in the picture, but it’s hard to tell because it’s a little blurry.)  I can’t find information about the first time this button might’ve been used, and the pin itself doesn’t have any print information on it, but the phrase has been used in many feminist causes fighting the notion that women should “know their place.”  Due to the rusting on the back, grandma suspected that she acquired this button “when not enough women were uppity!”