Page 12 - Delaware Lawyer - Winter 2019

FEATURE
ocrat: “If you go through Statuary Hall and vote on who’s pretty, the first one out is Abraham Lincoln.” 14 The money was raised from private sources and the move was accomplished in 1998.15
The Equal Rights Amendment
After the right to vote was achieved, Alice Paul, the leader of the National Women’s Party, immediately began work on an Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). It was introduced in Congress for the first time in 1921. Over the years, the text was modified slightly; the final language is straightforward: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on ac- count of sex.”
In March 1972, the proposed amend- ment was approved by both houses of the Congress and sent to the states for ratifica- tion with a deadline of March 22, 1979, later extended to June 30, 1982. Through 1977, the amendment received 35 of the necessary 38 ratifications required to be- come a constitutional amendment. Later,
10 DELAWARE LAWYER WINTER 2019
five states withdrew their ratification — the legality of which is unclear. The per- mitted time expired with no additional ratifications.
The ERA was defeated by a conserva- tive movement headed by Phyllis Schlafly
of Illinois. Schlafly was the organizer of the “STOP ERA” campaign. STOP was an acronym for “Stop Taking Our Privi- leges.” She argued that the ERA would take away gender-specific privileges cur- rently enjoyed by women, including cer- tain Social Security benefits, separate bathrooms, exemption from military ser- vice and protective labor laws.16
Supporting the ERA were groups such as the National Organization for Women (NOW) led by Betty Friedan, author of The Feminine Mystique, the bestsell- ing non-fiction book of 1964. The term “feminine mystique” is “the idea that women are naturally fulfilled by devot- ing their lives to being housewives and mothers.”17 Her book demonstrated that for many women, the post-war notion of happiness included the opportunity for education and a career.
Delaware was the third state to ratify the ERA in 1973 but did not add equal- rights protection to its state constitution. Twenty-four states have incorporated an
Alice Paul
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