Why Is The Equal Rights Amendment Important

Mary Shelley once said, "I do not wish women to have power over men; but over themselves." The Women's Rights Movement has consumed the nation since the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, where Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott began advocating for women's suffrage in the United States. Since then, the Nineteenth Amendment has passed through Congress and granted women the constitutional right to vote. Despite the achievements of the crusade, women continue to face sexual discrimination. In fact, some believe the Equal Rights Amendment, proposed in 1923 by Alice Paul, is the only approach to guarantee equality among individuals. On the contrary, the United States does not require another law to protect women from injustice, as these already exist. Passing the Equal Rights Amendment is not necessary to ensure the safety of women's rights, as doing so would transfer governmental power to Congress, undo all the progress of the Women's Rights Movement thus far, and be redundant, due to the existence of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

First, if the ERA passed into law, the legislative balance would tip to favor the federal government as opposed to the state governments. Section Two of the ERA states, "The
The ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, also known as the "Reconstruction Amendment", occurred after the Civil War. The purpose of the law was to protect the rights of former slaves, but it also inadvertently armed the Women's Rights Movement with a valid case. Section One of the Fourteenth Amendment, commonly referred to as the Equal Protection Clause, says that states shall not "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws". While it does not specifically mention gender, it clearly establishes a legal basis for defense of equal rights, thus causing the ERA to become