In August 2024, The American Bar Association, the largest national volunteer association of lawyers in the world, adopted Resolution 601 championing the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). Equality Now has drawn out the key points of the Resolution report to bring the legal and broader community a concise, irrefutable analysis concluding that the ERA must be recognized and implemented.
What’s inside the factsheet?
- An assessment of the main legal arguments opponents raise against recognition of the ERA as our 28th Amendment, using constitutional analyses to rebut each in turn.
- An overview of how existing legal protections against sex-based discrimination in the US, such as Title VII and Title IX, are “a patchwork” of laws that can easily be repealed, narrowly interpreted, and not enforced. As well as how the ERA can provide a remedy for those gaps.
- A discussion of how the US is in violation of international law by not including an explicit guarantee against sex- and gender-based discrimination in its Constitution.
- Calls to action.
Who’s it for?
- The Department of Justice
- US President Biden
- US Congress Members
- Legislators and Policy Makers
- The Legal Community Everywhere
- Advocates and Activists for Gender Equality
Key recommendations
- Support the recognition of the ERA as part of the US Constitution and its implementation as our 28th Amendment.
- Utilize the constitutional framework delineated in the ABA Resolution report to rebut opponents’ arguments around the timing of state ratifications and the validity of state rescissions.
- Continue to support the enactment of state constitution ERAs, and expand the use of existing ones to challenge laws and regulations that raise inequality and sex discrimination issues in a variety of contexts.
I need the ERA because…a girl is not a wife – Child marriage
It is estimated by Unchained at Last that about 300,000 children were married in the United States between 2000 and 2018, the…
I need the ERA because…reproductive rights are human rights – Abortion
By rightfully framing access to reproductive healthcare, including access to legal abortion, as fundamental to ensuring gende…
I need the ERA because… I have the right to bodily integrity – FGM
Despite the prevalence of the practice in the USA and the persisting risk to many women and girls, 20% of American states do …
I need the ERA because… one in three women experience violence in her lifetime – Gender Based Violence
Data shows that marginalized communities, such as indigenous women, Black women, and young women will be disproportionately a…
I need the ERA because…LGBTQ+ rights are human rights
Because discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation is sex discrimination, the ERA will make it much…
I need the ERA because… economic rights are human rights
In the United States, women do not have protections nor an explicit guarantee of equality on the basis of sex or gender withi…
I need the ERA because…without the ERA, the US violates international law
In October 2023, the United States was reviewed by the United Nations Human Rights Committee, and for the first time, a UN tr…
I need the ERA because…paid care is a right – gender equality and the care economy
For more than a century, feminists have realized that omitting sex discrimination from the Constitution presents a major barr…
I need the ERA because…the voice of the US legal profession endorses it!
In August 2024, The American Bar Association, the largest national volunteer association of lawyers in the world, adopted&nbs…