Women's History Month: This March the Equal Rights Amendment was Remembered

We just celebrated Women's History Month in March and for many of us the rallying cry for equal rights brings back a flood of memories. The Equal Rights Amendment was first introduced to the 92^nd Congress (118 Congressional Record 9598) with the hope that all the states would then ratify it, which to date they have not. Interest around the country was stirred by the UN Council's International Women's Year in 1976. In 1977, women's conferences sprung up in several US cities which were mandated by Congress and federally funded so that the government could get a handle on how important it was to the country to have an Amendment to the US Constitution protecting women's rights.

On July 8, 1977, one of those conferences came to Ellensburg, Washington, which was chosen because of its central location within the state. There were over 4,000 women registered with an additional 2,000 waiting to arrive. The theme of the conference was "Generations of Women Moving History Forward." There was a wide range of conference topics including abortion rights, affirmative action, and caucus groups for black, Hispanic, Native American, Asian, lesbian and disabled women. Concerns about child care provisions, displaced homemakers, women's image in the media and violence against women were discussed. Many of these subjects though not new were finally getting the attention and recognition they deserved at the legislative level. There were even Anti-ERA panelists who claimed women could lose their husband's Social Security benefits, alimony or protection under then current labor laws.

I remember in the summer of 1977 taking the Amtrak train into the small town from Seattle and meeting with friends who were students at Central Washington University where the conference was to be held. This was a wild and wonderful time for young, single women on the precipice of progress and for married women finding their voice. The "morning after pill" was still in the experimental stages plus women had to get written permission from their husbands before their doctors would provide birth control. Women also worked twice as hard and made half the pay as a man, plus faced discrimination in real estate contracts, job opportunities, health care and housing.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton is best remembered as the founder of the women's movement. She held the first conference in Seneca Falls, New York, in July of 1848. At that time women could not vote, hold public office or even make legal contracts without their husbands' permission. Historians tell us, however, that roughly 12 percent of homesteaders in the West were single women enticed by the Homestead Act of 1912 which "reduced the amount of time needed to 'prove up' and they doubled the amount of land that could be claimed" (Hensley, High Country News, 3/27). In 1869, Wyoming as well as Utah allowed women the right to vote, but unfortunately the Edmonds-Tucker Act in 1887 revoked that privilege. Women during these early days issued a "Declaration of Sentiments" to Congress similar to the "Declaration of Independence," but still had to endure tremendous discrimination in their personal lives.

In 1920 Congress ratified the 19^th Amendment of the US Constitution giving women the right to vote. In 1964 Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, prohibiting sexual discrimination in employment. In 1966, the National Organization for Women was formed. They along with many others fought the battle for reproductive choice in 1973 and helped establish minimum wage protections in 1974. They were instrumental in helping pass the Equal Credit Opportunity Act in 1974 and enacting the Equal Pay Improvement Act of 2005 (HR 157). The Washington Post recently reported that the Equal Rights Amendment is being reintroduced to Congress as the Women's Equality Amendment which shows early favor, particularly in light of the Women's Equality Summit and Congressional Action Day which was held in Washington, D.C. on Monday, March 26th by the National Organization for Women.

Today we have Justice Sandra Day O'Conner, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi , and Congresswomen Hillary Clinton as role models. Without the efforts of so many women before them, their lives and the lives of many women today would be extraordinarily different.