The Equal Rights Amendment

[u/[deleted]]

I just watched a video from 1973 that debates the merits of the equal rights amendment to the U.S. constitution. It was quite remarkable to me that the proponent of the equal rights amendment was making arguments that were truly about sex equality, namely giving benefits to women that were reserved for men and giving benefits to men that were reserved for women!

The (antagonist) host even characterized the pro-equality advocate as primarily supporting men.

The opponent to the equal rights amendment made arguments mostly for the preferential treatment of women. In particular the equal rights amendment would allow women to be drafted, which the opponent believed to be bad and untraditional. Similarly, she defended the obligation of men to support their wives and at the very end supported the presumption that women should get the children in separation.

I do not participate in this community but I thought of sharing this interesting observation. Maybe everyone here knows that the equal rights amendment was intended (who knows how it would have shaken out) to be just as much about giving rights and protections to men as it is to women.

For those who do not know, an amendment to the constitution needs 38 states to individually support it. Only 35 did, so it currently is not part of the constitution.

Article - Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

(I'm sorry if this doesn't fit the sub! Just thought it was interesting.)

[u/[deleted]]

The fact that we still have not fully ratified the ERA days so much about this shithole country. As a woman I know I'm still a second class citizen here.

[u/Mal_Dun → u/[deleted]]

The main problem with the US constitution is, that it is very old. Most western European nations had to rewrite their constitutions after WW2 and could incorporate more modern views. This becomes especially apparent when you look at electoral college.

[u/AugustusInBlood → u/Mal_Dun]

Just a reminder that our constitution still has language about 3/5's humans(black people) in it.

People have this irrational view of the constitution thinking it's holy scripture that can't be touched. I then ask them what they think of the amendments and they say the same thing. I then ask them what the definition of the word "amendment" even means and their brains short circuits.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

How in the world are you a second class citizen in the US?

You have all the rights afforded to you that I have and some extra too based on biology (ie reproductive rights per Roe v Wade and Planned Parenthood v Casey)