Democratic congressmen are demanding that the US Constitution include gender equality, an amendment feminist groups have fought for for a century. Ayanna Pressley is the face of the proposal.
Democratic congressmen on Tuesday demanded that the US Congress include gender equality in the Constitution by approving an amendment that feminist groups have been fighting for a century.
At a press conference, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, leader of the movement in the House of Representatives, declared that “women and states have done their jobAnd now it’s time for Congress to do its thing and pass this resolution.”
Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in 1972, but for it to be included in the Constitution it needed to be ratified by at least 38 of the 50 US states by 1979, though the deadline was later extended until 1982.
This ratification triggered a war between the feminist movement and the organization of conservative activist Phyllis Schlaflyaggravated by the decriminalization of abortion by the Supreme Court in 1973.
Schlafly won that battle and the ERA was left out of the Constitution, because the necessary ratification could not be obtained from 38 of the federal states.
However, although technically it could no longer happen, with the explosion of the movement of denouncing sexual abuse “#MeToo”, several states began to ratify the amendment, and in January 2020Virginia became the 38th state to do so.
For the initiative to materialize in the 28th revision of the US Constitution, Congress must vote in favor of the bipartisan resolution proposed this Tuesday, which defends the elimination of the term as a requirement.
Congress imposed an arbitrary deadline on the ratification process, preventing it from being formally enshrined in the Constitution. And today, three-fourths of the nation’s states have ratified the Equal Rights Amendment. Our resolution would remove that arbitrary deadline and move this constitutional review forward,” said Democratic Rep. Pressley.
Democratic Senator Ben Cardin indicated that, although this right is not yet recognized among fundamental laws, “most people in the United States think that the Equal Rights Amendment is currently part of the ConstitutionSo it’s something that has the overwhelming support of the American people.”
Cardin also took the opportunity to thank the president, Joe Biden, for having “eliminated any confusion” that may have remained from the government of his predecessor, Republican Donald Trump (2017-2021), making it clear that “Congress has the power to eliminate the term”.
Pennsylvania Democratic Congresswoman Madeleine Dean also recalled the simplicity of the amendment: “Equal rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State [federado] based on sex“.
Dean added that the Equal Rights Amendment did not pass in the past because Congress had few women, but now its composition “is changing” and “at any moment” it will be.
Source: Observadora
