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shfwire
Posted: June 22, 2011

Equal Rights Amendment introduced after Wal-Mart Supreme Court decision

Susan Scanlan Click on photo to enlarge or download:
Janet Kopenhaver, Washington representative for a former client (at podium), Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, speak in support of the Equal Rights Amendment. SHFWire photo by Rebecca Koenig

By Rebecca Koenig
shfwire.com

WASHINGTON � Members of Congress and leaders of national women's organizations met outside the Capitol Tuesday to support the re-introduction of the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution.

"With women determined, we will be in the Constitution," Feminist Majority Foundation President Eleanor Smeal said.

The re-introduction came on the heels of Monday's Supreme Court dismissal of a sex-discrimination suit brought against Wal-Mart by 1.5 million female employees seeking back pay and damages for the company's alleged unequal pay and promotion practices.

Although the news conference was scheduled before the Wal-Mart Stores Inc. v. Dukes ruling, several speakers pointed to it as evidence that women need explicit protection in the Constitution.

"The Wal-Mart decision stings, it hurts so bad," Susan Scanlan, chair of the National Council of Women's Organizations, said before the news conference. "The passage of the ERA wouldn't necessarily have changed that verdict. � I do think it would have made Wal-Mart think twice."

Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., are the amendment's primary sponsors. Reps. Judy Chu, D-Calif., and Hank Johnson, D-Ga., were among the other speakers.

"Women's rights are human rights," Johnson said. "This discrimination is akin to denying women their civil rights, and it's wrong and it's immoral."

The original Equal Rights Amendment was written by suffragist Alice Paul in 1923 and introduced in every session of Congress until 1972, when the bill was reworded to read, "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."

Hank Johnson Click on photo to enlarge or download:
Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., tells the crowd assembled outside the Capitol to support the Equal Rights Amendment that women's rights are human rights. SHFWire photo by Rebecca Koenig

Hank Johnson

It passed the House of Representatives and Senate that year and was sent to the states for ratification. Only 35 of the 38 states required to approve the amendment did so. Since 1982, the year ratification finally failed, the bill has been introduced in every session of Congress.

The amendment's supporters say it is necessary to rid the country of gender-based wage disparity, single-sex education in public schools and discriminatory health care practices.

"We would look at the pay gap, it's 77 cents to the dollar as compared to men, and that's not equality," Janet Kopenhaver, Washington representative of a former client, said before the news conference. "We think it needs to be codified. We think it would show support for women nationwide."

Several speakers condemned Justice Antonin Scalia's statement in an interview in January that the Constitution does not prohibit gender discrimination.

"One of the senior justices of the Supreme Court said that women are not covered by the Constitution. Flat out said it," Smeal said in an interview. "It's shocking that he could take the time recently to say that. � And right now he's writing for the majority of the court."

Among the groups opposed to the Equal Rights Amendment is the Eagle Forum, a conservative interest group that has fought the amendment's passage for decades.

"We don't need a legislative declaration to prove that we're equal," spokeswoman Colleen Holmes said. "We would just say still that women were made equal to men by God our creator. The bill does absolutely nothing to make men and women equal."

Holmes said the Equal Rights Amendment would lead to the inclusion of women in future military drafts, prevent separate men's and women's restrooms, allow state-funded abortion and erode protections widows and married women enjoy.

"It's really a fundraising ploy," she said.

Scanlan rejected those assertions.

"The big lies are repeated and repeated so often that some of the population accepts them," she said.

As the news conference on the Capitol lawn ended, Maloney headed inside to introduce the amendment.

"On to passage," she said.


Read original article here.