Make Women's History

Make Women's History: Add the ERA to the Constitution

As we turn the calendar to March, I find myself reflecting on the role of women in our democracy from the beginning.

Despite Abigail Adams’s famous advice to her husband to “remember the ladies,” he and the rest of the founders left any mention of women out of the founding documents. As a result, the U.S. Constitution does not mention women at all.

This is ironic, to say the least, in our current day and age, when women fill the halls of Congress and hold leadership positions, from Speaker of the House to Vice President of the United States.

It's been 101 years since the 19th Amendment granted women the right to vote.
It's been 98 years since the Equal Rights Amendment was first introduced in Congress.
It's been 49 years since the ERA was passed by Congress.
And it's been one year since the ERA was ratified by the required 38 states.

But the Equal Rights Amendment still needs to be added to the Constitution.

This year, after a century in the making, the ERA is closer than ever to taking its rightful place in the supreme law of our nation. What stands in our way is an arbitrary, ambiguous and legally questionable deadline for enactment imposed on the ERA at its passage.

Learn more about the history of the ERA and why we need it on our blog.

In a nutshell, the Equal Rights Amendment states that “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”

It is important to recognize that, while women’s rights are inextricably linked to the ERA, inequality hurts everyone. The ERA represents a promise that our government will not pass laws or take any official action that discriminates against its people on the basis of sex.

We need the ERA because we need equal pay, fair healthcare coverage that addresses maternal mortality and coverage for caregivers, protection against gender testing laws, prevention of discrimination against LGBTQ+ persons, protections for men in occupations and roles traditionally held by women, and protection against rollbacks in women’s rights.

We need the ERA because, just as many women of color faced added barriers for voting until the Voting Rights Act, today women of color are more likely to be under-paid and discriminated against than white women. The ERA would make the Constitution prohibit discrimination on the basis of race AND sex.

But more than that, we need the ERA because our nation must close the book once and for all on the idea that equality of rights is a debatable issue. Because a constitution is not only a set of legal protections: it is a proclamation of a nation’s values. And little girls should not grow up in a country where they question their rights simply because they are a girl.

This Women’s History Month, tell Congress to remove the ERA ratification deadline, and let’s establish gender equality in our Constitution, once and for all.

Sincerely,

Dr. Deborah Ann Turner
Board President, LWVUS

Black Women’s Equal Pay Day

Black Women’s Equal Pay Day is August 13. But it is NOT a day to celebrate. It is the day in 2020 when the average black woman, working full time since January of 2019, finally catches up to the amount of money that the average white man, working full time, makes in one year.

That’s right! She has to work 20 months to make as much as a white man makes in 12 months. And the difference keeps piling up: it takes her 40 months to his 24 months of work for the same amount of money; 60 months for his 36 months of work. That’s systemic racism and sexism as it plays out in our society. No wonder 22.4 percent of black women have family incomes below the federal poverty line.

So what can we do about it? One big thing would be to recognize the skills required to be a caregiver, and pay those folks according to their real value to our society.

Why start with caregiving? Because for centuries women and slaves were just expected to take care of babies, children, the sick, and the elderly with no compensation at all. And now that caregiving has moved into the marketplace our society still is not in the habit of valuing those skills. In the long run we need to reevaluate jobs and their compensation on a gender and racially neutral scale.

Barb Thomas, August 10, 2020

Crisis shows how vital women's work is

Crisis highlights women and vital roles in society

Letter to the Editor: Times Union
April 10, 2020

The end of Women's History Month and Equal Pay Day on March 31 was an opportunity to reflect on how the coronavirus affects women in untold ways. Women comprise the majority of health and social care workers and are now on the front lines in confronting the virus.

School closings significantly affect women because they make up 77 percent of teachers and because mothers head 84 percent of single-parent households. Frequently, women juggle caregiving schedules while patching together part-time jobs that garner lower wages and fewer benefits.

Women already make up the ranks of the lowest paying jobs; 70 percent of tipped restaurant workers are women. Many are cleaners, a benign-sounding job now made hazardous with higher risk of exposure. Many women have few or no resources to weather any crisis, especially the drastic loss of income from the coronavirus.

The current crisis demonstrates how women's work is vital to the functioning of our society, says PowherNY, which is committed to securing economic equality for all New York women. It's an opportunity to recognize how their work is woefully under-valued, under-appreciated and underpaid.

This crisis will end, but the need for paid sick leave, equal pay policies, access to affordable and quality child care, job training and closing the employment opportunity gap will remain. Planning, funding and legislation must address these issues.

Barbara Thomas, League of Women Voters of Saratoga County
Times Union: https://www.timesunion.com/opinion/article/Crisis-highlights-women-and-vital-roles-in-society-15193451.php

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Crisis shows how vital women's work is

Letter to the Editor: Post Star
Mar 30, 2020

As Equal Pay Day approaches on March 31 and Women’s History Month ends, we offer the following on how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting women locally:

Most health and social care workers are women. They are now on the front lines in confronting the virus.

School closings significantly affect women because they make up 77 percent of teachers and because mothers head 84 percent of single-parent households, says PowherNY, which is committed to securing economic equality for all New York women.

As they juggle schedules for caregiving responsibilities, women here in the 21st Congressional District earn 82.1 percent of what men earn, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. They frequently patch together part-time jobs that garner lower wages and fewer benefits.

Many women have few or no resources to weather any crisis, especially the drastic loss of income from the coronavirus.

Our current crisis demonstrates how women’s work is vital to the functioning of our society. It is an opportunity to recognize how their work is woefully undervalued, under-appreciated and underpaid.

In time, this crisis will end, but the need for paid sick leave, equal pay policies, access to affordable and quality child care, job training and closing the employment opportunity gap will continue. Future planning, funding and legislation should and must address these issues.

Barbara Thomas, League of Women Voters of Saratoga County

Post Star: https://poststar.com/opinion/letters/crisis-shows-how-vital-women-s-work-is/article_fe062e91-9bf1-57f4-ac84-035ce745994a.html