EQUALITY 4 WOMEN

A strong Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)* is essential to end sex discrimination and violence against women by guaranteeing to all
women equal protection of the law. Example: A strong ERA would guarantee access to abortion as a routine, safe
 medical service. (Many women have no access to abortion under the weak constitutional protection of Roe v. Wade.)

 I. ERA Basics

Law professors urge: Unite the ERA and abortion-rights campaigns; women's equality requires it, two pages, No. 766

Unite ERA and Abortion-Access speech, 2016, 7 minutes, No. 888

ERA briefing outline for National Organization for Women (NOW) interns, 2014, two pages, No. 762

“Three Categories of Discrimination Against Women and Girls,” working fact sheet, one page, No. 764

18th Century Writing on Equal Protection for Women, by Abigail Adams, John Adams, and Marquis de Condorcet, two pages, No. 5

“21st Century ERA Effort Begins,” article from National NOW Times, 1994, one page, No. 541

Progression of Constitutional Amendments toward Equality of all US Citizens, plus list of 14th Amendment decisions protecting men and other classes, but not women, two pages, No. 10

Notes for High School Students Preparing for the 1996 National Forensic League Debate on Feminist Ideals, 10 pages, No. 565

II. ERA to end:  Attacks on women's reproductive organs by both conservatives and liberals

“Stop abortion? Fix men!” 1-page essay and 1-page summary, No.622

“Abortion Law: ‘Unique Problem for Women’ or Sex Discrimination?” 1991 law journal article, 14 pages,  No. 417

“Abortion and Pornography: The Sexual Liberals' Gotcha Against Women’s Equality” 1990 symposium chapter, 9 pages, No. 292

“How the First Amendment Is Being Used To Protect Violence Against Women,”  1995 symposium chapter, 10 pages, No. 525

“Trafficking, Prostitution, and Inequality” by Catharine A. MacKinnon, 2011, 40 pages

"Swedish ('Nordic Model') Prostitution Law" Fact Sheet by Swedish Ministry of Industry, Employment and Communications, 2004, 4 pages

III. ERA to expose: False threats that women would be hurt by equality

Single-Sex Schools: NOW letter to Wall Street Journal, plus Pro and Con, and the ERA and Unconstitutionality of Sex-Segregated Schools, 12 pages, Numbers 576, 763, 554

Women in Military Service and the Draft, one page, No. 761

End of insurance sex discrimination under ERA debated by Illinois Legislators, two pages, No. 15

“Automobile Insurance Pricing: Implications for Women,” 1996 Women’s Travel Conference, No. 570

Cents-per-mile automobile insurance information website

IV. To pass ERA

“How to Pass an ERA Worth Passing,” position paper, 6 pages,  No. 760

What an ERA would change; considered in 1983 and again in 2013, 2 pages, No. 882

“Unthinking ERA Thinking,” chapter in “Women’s Lives Under Men’s Laws” by Catharine A. MacKinnon, 2005 (link to Amazon books)

* ERA states that "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex." Approved by Congress and sent to the states for ratification on March 22, 1972.

"Resolved, That the women of this country ought to be enlightened in regard to the laws under which they live, that they may no longer publish their degradation by declaring themselves satisfied with their present position, nor their ignorance, by asserting that they have all the rights they want." Adopted by delegates at the Seneca Falls Meeting July 19, 1848.

Equality 4 Women is a project directed by Twiss Butler, Washington, DC
Contact: tbutler@equality4women.org