Note: This message about the ERA has been updated and will run in Tompkins Weekly as the August Democratic View. Be sure to look for it this week!
One Hundred Years Later, Let’s Ratify the Equal Rights Amendment!
Older Democrats will remember the push to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in the 1970s and 1980s. How many of us remember that the ERA was first proposed a century ago?
You can relive that historical moment at the ERA Centennial March and Rally in nearby Seneca Falls, where the amendment was first introduced on July 21, 1923. The march and rally are the final events of the first day of the ERA Centennial Convention, to be held July 21 and 22.
We’ve made enormous strides toward elevating the status of women and people across the gender spectrum since 1923. Yet here we are in the 21st century, facing attacks on our rights at the federal, state and local levels.
Clearly, there is still work to be done. The distinct absence of an explicit prohibition against sex discrimination in the Constitution remains the key impediment to attaining gender equality and women’s progress overall. The ERA is an important tool that will help us accomplish real progress, now and in the future.
Ratifying the amendment would likely provide additional support for new and existing protections against sex discrimination in the workplace, in access to reproductive health care and in areas like gender-based violence. Broader, more in-depth understanding of the ERA would signal protections for groups outside the ERA sphere; rally public support for the Violence Against Women Act and Title IX, and raise resistance to Pay Discrimination and Pregnancy Discrimination.
Now is the time to hold politicians accountable for ratifying the ERA and fulfilling its promise of gender equality.
Sign the petition calling on Congress to validate the federal ERA as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution.
Vote for the New York State ERA, which will be on the ballot in 2024.
Mark your calendar, show up and be counted at the ERA Centennial March and Rally.
See you in Seneca Falls!
Linda Hoffmann, Chair
Tompkins County Democratic Committee