It's past time to support the Equal Rights Amendment

It is with great pride that I stand with this bipartisan group in support of the long-overdue Equal Rights Amendment. I can’t help but think of the words of our former colleague and feminist pioneer Pat Schroeder, when she was asked if being a mother would get in the way of her duties as a member of Congress. She said: “I have a brain and a uterus, and I use both.” 

I thought that summed it up pretty well. Close to forty years later, we’re still facing the same obstacles, the same glass ceiling, the same unfair treatment. Whether we “use both” or not – for women who have children and those who choose not to - gender discrimination is persistent and pervasive.

We can’t afford to miss this opportunity to pass the Equal Rights Amendment. Not when women still – still – have to work almost through the weekend in order to earn what a man makes Monday through Friday. Not when women’s health care is under assault, as we saw earlier this year with the attempted de-funding of Title X and Planned Parenthood. Not when the Supreme Court of the United States is throwing out class-action lawsuits from women claiming years of pay discrimination on the job.

Here’s the text of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment, Section 1: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”

Replace the word “sex” with “race," and there would not be a single dissenting vote in the entire Congress. It’s as simple as that. Let’s pass the ERA once and for all.