Publishing the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) as the law of the land will finally solve every problem women face in the U.S., from being paid less because of their sex to being blamed for being the cause of sexual assault against them. Acts of Congress or policies established elsewhere can be overturned on a whim, and subsequent laws can contradict, mitigate, or eradicate prejudicial treatment of women. In her book, Rumors of Our Progress Have Been Greatly Exaggerated, former Congresswoman Carolyn D. Maloney said, “We need constitutional rights, not legislative fights. As it stands now, what judges and lawmakers giveth, they can also taketh away.”
In her three decades in Congress representing New York’s 14th district, Maloney described her work as plugging the dike with stopgap measures. She plugged a lot of dikes for women, families, and children by authoring and passing more than 81 measures, either as stand-alone bills or as measures incorporated into larger legislative packages. While this is an impressive record, Maloney is not done—not until the ERA is recognized as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution.
When Congresswoman Maloney’s book was published, only 35 states had ratified the ERA, and she described passing the ERA and amending the Constitution as her life’s legacy. Today, even though the requisite 38 states have ratified the amendment, Congresswoman Maloney is still working to get the amendment recognized and building what she called, “the levee—an impenetrable wall” to protect the rights of everyone, not only women and girls, from discrimination on the basis of sex.
Although women would seem to be the segment of the population to benefit most from the ERA, men would benefit as well. Congresswoman Maloney points out that discrimination on the basis of sex isn’t about just women, explaining how equality cannot exist without liberating men. The narrow definition of men creates machismo and, by extension, perpetuates misogyny against women.
During Congresswoman Maloney’s time serving in the House under President George W. Bush, the Bush tax cuts and trickle-down economics, first proposed by President Reagan, went into effect. Much like today, these tax cuts went to the wealthy and programs for the poor – like health care, food security, childcare, and family supports – were cut to pay for them. Looking back at those times, she points out that, in fact, wealth did not trickle down; the deficit continued to climb, and most of the people who benefited from the cuts were families making an average of $1.5 million per year.
Noting that Bush’s cuts characteristically whittled away at women’s rights in ways that 99 percent of Americans will never hear about, Congresswoman Maloney cited one proposed budget cut to eliminate money from the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program, which provided screening to women who could not afford it. She said that when he proposed the cut, it only served 20 percent of the population who needed it and asserted that it should be “quintupled” not eliminated.
That is just one example. Without the ERA, women continue to receive less from multiple sources. On Congresswoman Maloney’s watch alone, she cites:
- Victim’s benefits from 9/11, which she co-sponsored, were based on insurance actuarial tables, which grant larger amounts to men because their shorter life spans will not theoretically require as many years of benefits.
- Income tax rates, which tax women higher than men (still today) because their income is listed second on a combined form, giving them a higher basis, even though most make less money.
- Social Security benefits, which are lower because women typically have less lifetime wages and are unable to declare their spouse’s income unless they stay married for over 10 years.
- Women’s college sports, with Title IX support, drew complaints from lesser men’s college sports as leeching money from their programs. This resulted in an order to require women to answer an email asserting their intent to participate in sports. (Fortunately, this was never enforced.)
There are many more examples, then and now. What is old is new again as women continue to try to carve out equality in life, work, and support for their families. And, thirty years in, Congresswoman Maloney continues the fight for the ERA, as the ultimate protection under the law. In her podcast interview, “Driving For the ERA,” Congresswoman Maloney told Dr. Nancy, “If they (the Supreme Court) can roll back a woman’s right to choose, believe me, they can roll back any other right—Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, equal employment, Title IX, equality in education—and, “the only way to protect from these rollbacks is to put women in the Constitution where they belong.”
To garner attention for the ERA, Congresswoman Maloney is driving a replica 1914 Saxon Roadster, “The Golden Flyer II,” across the same 25 states that the Suffragists drove to build support for the right to vote. The goal of the drive is to raise awareness, activate supporters, mobilize voters, and collect petition signatures for the national ERA petition drive – with organizers hoping to collect 300,000 signatures by the end of the tour.
If you believe equality should not depend on interpretation or election cycles, join Congresswoman Maloney in the fight and add your name to the petition at Sign4ERA.org. Signing takes less than a minute, and by doing so, you join generations of women fighting to enshrine the Equal Rights Amendment in the Constitution and put an end to inequities based on sex once and for all. Together, we can help make history.