March 27, 2007
Because, after 35 years, we've waited long enough....
...the Democratic Party brings you (drumroll please).....................................
The Equal Rights Amendment!!!
Liberal Democrats in the Senate and House plan to resume "the fight for women's equality" on Tuesday, when they reintroduce the Women's Equality Amendment.Actually, I guess the wait has been since 1923. Congrats to the 'Crats for bringing up this crucial and pressing issue.Sens. Ted Kennedy (Mass.) and Barbara Boxer (Calif.) and Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Jerrold Nadler, both of New York, plan to join Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority, in making the Tuesday afternoon announcement...The proposed amendment would affect issues ranging from hiring and wages to restrictions on women serving in military combat units...
"It's been a long, hard fight for women's equality," Maloney said Monday at the Women's Equality Summit hosted by the National Council of Women's Organizations in Washington, D.C.
"We've achieved a lot for women -- even in my lifetime," she said. "But we have not done enough.
"There is still a great deal of discrimination out there," Maloney argued, citing income disparity between men and women, gender-based "discriminatory clubs" and "gender-based hate crimes."
"Discrimination is real; it's out there," Maloney said. "They are constantly trying to roll [women's rights] back.
"It's never going to go away until we pass the women's equality amendment," she said.
It's a big problem here at APC. Oh wait. No it's not. The vast majority of managers and directors are women. And they all do a damned fine job.
Posted by: Greg at March 27, 2007 3:00 PMThanks for the positive comments about the ERA. This is only the second one I've seen today. The right wing bloggers are in a feeding frenzy--too bad those of us working on the ERA don't have the same level of media/blog support from the liberals.
But this re-introduction isn't the only thing happening with the ERA--several states are trying to ratify it and the North Dakota legislature just recommitted to their 1975 ERA ratification. New York and Kansas are trying to add an ERA to their state constitutions. Check out www.4ERA.org for the latest.
Posted by: Verite Smith at March 27, 2007 9:08 PMCongratulations, Marc ...
Gender-based "discriminatory clubs"... like what, Boy Scouts?
Gender-based hate crimes? How come I don't hear or see anything about these kinds of things? Is it because all the media outlets are controlled by male-chauvinist pigs that won't let the stories out?
Posted by: smmtheory at March 28, 2007 1:19 AMThe proposed bill states "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."
This is a back door for gay rights. The dems are framing it as about women, but that is not their true motive.
Posted by: Josh at March 28, 2007 8:25 AMSusan, thanks for the congrats (ha!). Methinks that someone missed the (ahem) sarcasm, huh? Or the blog-spam 'bot needs to be tweaked.
Posted by: Marc Comtois at March 28, 2007 9:15 AM>>The proposed bill states "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex." This is a back door for gay rights. The dems are framing it as about women, but that is not their true motive.
Makes sense.
After all, I don't think that women are all that anxious to (potentially) be subject to the draft.
Nor for fathers to have equal rights to child custody ...
Nor for fathers to have equal rights as to whether or not to assume the obligations of parenthood, i.e., whether or not an abortion should occur.
This could also be a back-door attempt to impose "comparable worth" pay schemes, which effectively make the government the arbiter of compensation - another slide down the slippery slope we've been on in transforming our economy from a free market one to a socialistic one.
Posted by: Tom W at March 28, 2007 10:49 AM