Rep. Jackie Speier: 'Our Fight Is Not Complete Until Women's Rights Are Protected'

From ELLE

Not too long ago, presidential hopefuls Kamala Harris, Julián Castro, and Joe Biden spoke of the urgency of ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment on the debate stage. It’s about time the ERA gets the attention it deserves. But you may be wondering, what exactly would the ERA do?

It would finally include women in our Constitution, making us equal to men under the eyes of the law.

Since our country’s founding, women have been left out of the Constitution—intentionally. We were second-class citizens deprived of basic rights to vote, enter most jobs, or own property. Much has changed since Abigail Adams wrote to her husband John that the ladies would “foment a rebellion” if they were to be forgotten, but certainly not enough.

It wasn’t until 1965 that the Supreme Court ruled that married women had the right to access contraception. It wasn’t until 1972, the same year Congress passed Title IX, that women could run the Boston Marathon, with other major marathons begrudgingly following suit. It wasn’t until 1974 that single women won the right to qualify for credit cards, yet women still pay half a point higher in interest rates than men. It took the Supreme Court until 1975 to strike down a ban against women serving on juries. And it took until 1978 for NASA to hire female applicants to train as astronauts. That was just 40 years ago.

The fight for those hard-fought victories began many years earlier, in 1923, when the ERA was first introduced by Alice Paul. It’s been reintroduced in every Congress since and includes a few simple but powerful words: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account of sex.” When Congress passed the ERA in 1972 with overwhelming bipartisan support, it sent it to the states to ratify within an arbitrary deadline of seven years. That deadline was extended an additional two years and 35 of the necessary 38 states ratified the ERA. Recently, Nevada and Illinois joined those ranks. That leaves us just one state shy of 38 states and several, including Virginia, are on the cusp of making this a reality.

That’s why I’ve introduced legislation to remove that arbitrary deadline from the preamble of the original Constitutional amendment. You may have read about the ERA in history books and wonder why it’s still relevant today. Well, this is not just your mother’s fight. Our rights are under siege each and every day. The way to protect them is by making them bedrock in the Constitution.

Consider Christy Brzonkala, who was raped by two football players at Virginia Tech. After her school let her perpetrators off the hook with a slap on the wrist, she filed suit against them in federal court under the Violence Against Women Act. Congress included this provision in part because it recognized that schools, law enforcement, and state courts traditionally failed to defend the rights of survivors. But in a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court in 2000 declared the civil remedy provision of VAWA unconstitutional. The provision would have allowed Brzonkala–and so many other survivors–to seek the justice that they were denied because Congress lacked the authority to issue the law. The ERA would give Congress the power to enforce women’s equality in ways it lacks the ability to do so now.

Some have argued that the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution has the desired effect of the ERA. However, the 14^th Amendment was adopted to address racial segregation and discrimination. The courts often treat discrimination based on race and sex differently, adopting a higher level of scrutiny when evaluating whether racial discrimination fulfills an important government purpose. Adoption of the ERA would help ensure that sex discrimination benefits from this same strict scrutiny.

If you’re still questioning the value of the ERA, look no further than the immortal words of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia: “Certainly the Constitution does not require discrimination on the basis of sex. The only issue is whether it prohibits it. It does not.”

Or ask yourself, if we can be violated with impunity, paid less for our work, and discriminated against simply for being who we are—how can we be equal?

This year marks the centennial of the 19^th Amendment granting women the right to vote. Suffrage was always just the beginning. Our fight is not complete until women see their rights protected under the Constitution.

The beacon of hope in these dark and dangerous times are the women lighting the path forward. Women have been on the front lines of the fight for affordable health care, a living wage, and freedom from violence and discrimination. We’ve marched, organized, ran for office, and won in record numbers. And yes, we’re fighting for equality.

When you take in the view of the Supreme Court of the United States, one of the statues in front is of a woman, and she is called the Contemplation of Justice. Atop the marble edifice are the words “Equal Justice Under Law.” The time for contemplation is over. It’s time that we receive justice with the ERA now.

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