For more than a century, feminists have realized that omitting sex discrimination from the Constitution presents a major barrier to achieving true gender equality in the United States. However, the effort to ensure legal equality within the US wages on.
In the US, norms and stereotypes about women’s caregiving are perpetuated by a lack of legal equality on the basis of sex or gender, including without the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in the Constitution, too often resulting in discrimination in terms of equal pay, family leave, and positions within the formal labor market.
The United States must recognize and provide resources and tax regimes that support those who provide and receive care, taking a substantive equality or human rights-based and feminist approach to make work and family care needs compatible.
As part of our I Need the ERA because… campaign, we also take a closer look at how the ERA would grant the legislative branch clear constitutional authority to enact positive protections such as the right to receive and provide care and laws that provide social protections for long-term care and health.
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…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…