Originally published in The Chattanooga Times Free Press
I was amazed when Biden, just before his end as president, declared the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution. About time! Did you know that 85% of UN Member States already protect against sex and/or gender-based discrimination in their constitutions. And recently, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women asked Biden to ensure the ERA’s role. So exciting! But I have no doubt that there will be push back and legal challenges echoing our century-long fight for gender equality.
My pessimism comes from a lifetime of activism on behalf of women. It began as a teenager when I advocated for the 1964 Civil Rights Act which made it illegal to discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. But given our culture’s reluctance for equality, it took many years for the legal system to define sex discrimination and create laws protecting women.
Those years saw the emergence of a public, visible and aggressive women’s movement that I wanted to join. As a Radcliffe-Harvard freshman in 1970, I boarded a bus to New York City and optimistically joined the first Women’s Liberation March down 5th Avenue led by Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, and Bella Abzug. Returning to Harvard, I was outraged with a young male student’s response to the movement: “We should have never given them the vote.” Unfortunately, I’m reminded of his response when I read how protesters held signs declaring ‘women are property’ on a Texas campus after Trump’s victory.
The reality of women’s roles was embedded in me during my first job after graduation. I was an office “Gal Friday” which is somewhere between a file clerk and a secretary. A big part of my job was making coffee for the guys in the office while they sat around telling jokes and singing about my female body parts. Sexual harassment wasn’t a thing back then.
I was heartened that despite objections from conservatives, the ERA was passed by Congress in 1972. How could I not be hopeful with these words: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” Originally proposed a century earlier, surely our modern sophistication would mean quick ratification of the amendment by the 38 states needed for it to become law. But no!
Sexual harassment and misconduct have rarely been a priority. It wasn’t until the 1980s that Supreme Court actually heard a sexual harassment case. The Court determined “that severe or pervasive” sexual harassment of an employee by their supervisor violates federal law and if the employer knew about it, they had to take action against the perpetrator. Lots of luck with that!
It’s taken years and repeated attempts to define, protect and enforce these laws, including a 1991 Civil Rights Act allowing women to sue the perps. President Bush almost vetoed that one given Anita Hills’s allegations against her former boss, then Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas.
Thomas was confirmed as have others who’ve been accused of sexual misconduct. Some things don’t change. Men who see women as property and sexual harassment as irrelevant continue to seek and use power to control our culture and nation. And we let them, confirm them, and vote for them. I know that the Women’s Liberation Movement and the “Me, Too” Movement ended up demonized as noisy, loud, ugly and irrelevant. But it’s time for a new women’s movement that uses name calling to its advantage. Call us whatever, quote us online, televise us and maybe we can save our culture and nation.
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