Issue Position: Women's Issues - Equal Rights Amendment

Issue Position

Many people today take for granted that equal rights between men and women are enshrined in the U.S. Constitution -- and are shocked when they learn that they are not. To this day, the right to vote is the only right guaranteed to the women who make up more than 50% of the population. That is why I have reintroduced the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), to give women the constitutional protection they need and deserve.

The ERA passed in Congress in 1972, and was sent to the states for ratification. Unfortunately, by the time the allotted deadline had passed in 1982, the ERA was just three states shy of the thirty-eight ratifications necessary for inclusion in the Constitution. I believe the states deserve another chance to pass this historic amendment.

Women have made incredible progress in the past thirty-five years, but unfortunately judicial attitudes can shift, and Congress can repeal existing laws with a simple majority vote. In recent years, there have been efforts to roll back women's rights in education, health, employment, and even domestic violence. As the great suffragist and author of the ERA Alice Paul said: "We shall not be safe until the principle of equal rights is written into the framework of our government."

On August 1, 2013, I reintroduced the Equal Rights Amendment (H.J.Res 56) in the 113th Congress. The ERA is a constitutional amendment which would prohibit denying or abridging equal rights under law by the United States or any state on account of sex. This critical amendment would guarantee the equal rights of men and women by:

Clarifying the legal status of sex discrimination for the courts, by making sex a suspect category subject to strict judicial scrutiny, as race, religion, and national origin currently are.
Guaranteeing equal footing for women in the legal systems of all 50 states.
Ensuring that government programs and federal resources benefit men and women equally.

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