More Than A Magazine, A Movement
The Equal Rights Amendment, first proposed in 1923, would guarantee equality of rights under the law for all regardless of sex. The ERA passed Congress in 1972 with the needed two-thirds vote of the U.S. House and Senate. The required three-fourths of the state legislatures then ratified the ERA when Virginia became the 38th state to ratify in 2020. It still has not been added to the Constitution.
As Joan Baez, one of my favorite songwriters/performers/activists from my political ‘coming of age’ era, once said, “Action is the antidote to despair.”
Tuesday, Nov. 7, is Election Day in the United States, and voting is one action we can all take as U.S. citizens—and a privilege for every person living in a democratic country—to fend off the despair so easily experienced given the wars, the violence, and the rollback on rights in so many places today.
Tuesday, Nov. 7, is the last day for voters in several states to head to the polls to vote in a number of off-year elections. While they may be lower-profile, some of these races are still deeply consequential.
We’ll be watching: Ohio’s pro-abortion ballot measure; Virginia’s state legislature; the Pennsylvania supreme court race; and the Kentucky and Mississippi governors’ races.
Next year’s election will see many voters turn out who are motivated by abortion and equal rights for women, according to a new poll by Lake Research Partners for Ms. and the Feminist Majority Foundation, publisher of Ms. The poll showed that abortion and the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) are strong voter turnout issues separately, but even more powerful when combined.
Candidates talking about abortion and the ERA together are particularly mobilizing for Democrat and Independent voters—especially Independent women, younger women, voters who support abortion rights, college-educated women, Latinas and Black voters, and voters ages 30-39.
Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation.
This week: Three women are running to become Burlington’s first woman mayor; the slow progress to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment; how racism has shaped the composition of Brazil’s judicial branch; the pioneering shift taken by the Irish government that will impact gender parity in sports; and more.
If you thought the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade was the end of the Court’s war on women, think again. Now gender violence laws are under attack. Case in point: last term’s decision in Counterman v. Colorado striking down a stalking conviction as unconstitutional. This upcoming term, the Court is poised to deal another blow to domestic violence laws, in a case about guns: United States v. Rahimi.
The only answer is for women to return to a newly vital project since Dobbs: the Equal Rights Amendment.
(This article originally appears in the Fall 2023 issue of Ms. Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get issues delivered straight to your mailbox!)
Last year, a group of over 300 activists—half of whom were under 25—gathered in Seneca Falls, N.Y., to celebrate 100 years since the initial signing of the ERA. The fight continued on Monday, Sept. 18, 2023, with an intergenerational group of over 200—primarily women—activists, who gathered at the Roosevelt House in Hunter College to again demand that the ratified ERA be placed into law.
Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation.
This week: Anti-abortion Republican women lawmakers hope supporting legislation to expand access to birth control will provide them with political cover from abortion bans; feminism and the FIFA 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia; the modern fight for the ERA; “A womanless history no more”; and more.
President Joe Biden issued a challenge to Congress on Saturday “to act swiftly to recognize ratification of the [Equal Rights Amendment]”—part of his official proclamation on Women’s Equality Day.
“It is long past time to definitively enshrine the principle of gender equality in the Constitution,” said Biden. “Together we can and must build a future where our daughters have all the same rights and opportunities as our sons, where all women and girls have a chance to realize their God-given potential, and where we can finally realize the full promise of America for all Americans.”
Inaugural president and CEO of the ERA Coalition, the esteemed Carol Robles-Román, has died after a battle with lung cancer. Her legacy lives on through her community of beloved family and friends, and her legacy of fighting for sex equality and the leadership of women of color.
The movement for gender equality has been sustained by a steady drumbeat of activists and leaders pushing for progress and fighting side by side. It is powerful when these feminist leaders take time to reflect together on the lessons, the losses, the wins, and the road ahead. This conversation between Gloria Feldt and Kathy Spillar offers just that.
Feldt and Spillar, along with hundreds of other feminists, will convene on Women’s Equality Day—Saturday, Aug. 26—for the Take The Lead Conference at the UCLA Luskin Conference Center in Los Angeles. The program will be dedicated to sharing solutions to help the U.S. reach intersectional gender parity in leadership—at work, in politics, and in life.