EQUAL RIGHTS
ERA COALITION FOR WOMEN'S EQUALITY
The main section of the Equal Rights Amendment
consists of just 24 words:
“Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”
Since 1923, the ERA movement has asked that sex equality
be added to the Constitution of the United States,
outlawing gender discrimination.
But this fight has continued for almost a century.
Recently, the ERA has gotten new life.
Both houses of Congress passed the ERA 50 years ago, and the required 38 states have ratified the ERA.
The House has already voted to remove the time limit in the Amendment’s introduction.
Women's Equality Day August 26th
The basics of Women's Equality Day are easy enough to understand: we celebrate it because on August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment was certified, making it illegal to deny citizens the right to vote based on sex. Women's Equality Day is all about celebrating equal rights, but it's important to note that when women first won the right to vote more than a century ago, equal rights weren't so equal.
Focus on what you can do today, advocates say.
The fight for voting equality didn't end on August 26, 1920, or even on August 6, 1965, when the Voting Rights Act was made law. It's not over today, either, advocates agree.
"To view voting equality as a thing of the past is to deny ongoing efforts to gerrymander districts that prevent marginalized communities from fully being able to exercise their opportunity to elect the candidate of their choice," Elizabeth OuYang, a civil rights attorney, adjunct professor and voting rights advocate, told NPR.
Click on the Learn More button to see the full NPR article.