By Daniel Vega
On August 18th, 1920 the 19th amendment was finally adopted after Tennessee became the 36th state and the last state needed to formally ratify and make the 19th amendment which would be granting all women the right to vote. However, that is just about all the 19th amendment did, it granted women the right to vote, which is arguably one of the most important rights that could be given in a democratic republic like the United States of America. However, what was forgotten soon after, at least forgotten by most, was that women still were not equal, and to this day, women still are not equal to men.
The exact wording of the 19th amendment is as follows, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.” Notice that nowhere in the 19th amendment are women guaranteed equal rights, only the right to vote. This was a big win for women all over the country, for hundreds of years they had no say in politics, and now finally they did. However the 19th amendment also had some faults, it never enfranchised African-American, Asian-American, Hispanic, or any women of color until the voting rights act of 1965 was passed in congress. Many states also adopted loopholes to prevent women from voting, for example, many states would allow women to register to vote, but would prevent women from entering polling places, as the 19th amendment never said anything about women entering polling places. Other states would prevent women from running for elected office, or prevent women from sitting on juries, because this was also not specified in the 19th amendment. Women were met with steep opposition, especially in the states that chose to not ratify the 19th amendment. This led suffragists Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman to draft and formally introduce in congress the Equal Rights Amendment otherwise abbreviated as the “ERA”.
Now, what does the Equal Rights Amendment say. Well it says this, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.” The Equal Rights Amendment would grant all women of all colors equal rights. That means every single right that men have, so would women, the right of equal pay, the right to not face harassment, because it still is not an infraction on women’s rights for these things to happen, which is sadly why they still happen.
The previously stated loopholes that prevented women from voting were on full display during the 1920 presidential election and the 1922 midterm elections, and it left many women feeling betrayed, so in 1923 the Equal Rights Amendment was formally introduced in congress but sadly it was rejected without a second thought. Many of the people who voted on the 19th amendment felt that they had already done enough for women’s rights and so much like the story of the 19th amendment which Alice Paul helped pass, the Equal Rights Amendment was somewhat forgotten and put on hold for decades. It was reintroduced every new congress from 1923 to 1972, and finally in 1970 after being stalled in the House Judiciary Committee for 15 years, the House Judiciary Committee agreed to send the Equal Rights Amendment to the floor of the United States House of Representatives. Here it was passed by an overwhelming majority with 354 U.S. representatives voting in favor of the Equal Rights Amendment, 24 U.S. representatives voting against the Equal Rights Amendment, and 51 representatives not voting. This was a big win, especially for Alice Paul who was 85 at the time, and had written the Equal Rights Amendment 47 years ago. The Equal Rights Amendment was then sent to the U.S. Senate where it was passed by another large margin, with 84 Senators voting in favor of the Equal Rights Amendment, 8 senators voting against it, and 7 senators not voting. After the Equal Rights Amendment passed then president Richard Nixon gave it his full support and it was sent to state legislatures for ratification. At this point everyone thought that the Equal Rights Amendment would pass. The Amendment, like all amendments to the constitution, needs to be ratified by 3/4 of all U.S. states rounded up, which with 50 states means 38 states would be needed to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. The deadline for states to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment was set to March 22, 1979, however by March 22, 1979 only 35 of the 38 needed states had ratified the Equal Rights Amendment. These states were in the order of ratification, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Delaware, Iowa, Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, Tennessee, Alaska, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Colorado, West Virginia, Wisconsin, New York, Michigan, Maryland, Massachusetts, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, California, Wyoming, South Dakota, Oregon, Minnesota, New Mexico, Vermont, Connecticut, Washington, Maine, Montana, Ohio, North Dakota, and Indiana. Thus, the Equal Rights Amendment had failed. Later 5 states Nebraska, Tennessee, Idaho, Kentucky, and South Dakota decided to rescind their ratifications, which sparked constitutional debate about whether or not a state can rescind a ratification.
There is, however, still hope for the Equal Rights Amendment to pass. In 2017 an effort to revive the Equal Rights Amendment began and three more states, Nevada, Illinois, and Virginia all voted to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, bringing the total number of states ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment to 38, as it is still unclear if a state can rescind their ratification of an amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court also ruled in 1939 that the U.S. Congress has the sole authority to determine if an amendment can still be ratified by a state even if the ratification deadline has already passed. This leaves the door open for the U.S. Congress to once again make the Equal Rights Amendment a reality, by eliminating the Equal Rights Amendment 1979 deadline.
In fact, on March 17, 2021 the U.S. House of Representatives passed resolution H.J.Res.17 which gets rid of the deadline of the Equal Rights Amendment and would allow it to finally become an amendment to the constitution, as it now has the 38 states needed to ratify it. H.J.Res.17 also passed the House of Representatives with bipartisan support and has already been sent to the Senate where, if approved, it will finally allow the Equal Rights Amendment to pass, and truly guarantee all people equal rights under the law.
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