Equal Rights for All: On MLK Day, How RBG Logic Can Advance the ERA
Issue 2836 — January 20, 2025
On this long weekend when MLK day falls on inauguration day, and much of the country faces a big chill, a long overdue step forward for women’s rights was announced by President Biden: the ratification into the U.S. Constitution of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA for short).
Many of you have asked me about the status of the ERA since President Biden declared that it is legally ratified yesterday, but did not instruct the archivist to publish the 28th amendment into the Constitution–an element of the normal process that might or might not make a difference in the ultimate inclusion of the 28th amendment in the law of the land.
This was an artful and possibly brilliant reframing of a long simmering controversy.
His action is supported in this legal analysis by prominent Constitutional scholar and attorney Laurence Tribe. Tribe provides solid facts about what the Constitution does and does not require in order for an amendment to be valid.
Perhaps the lawyers reading this would like to weigh in. While there is probably a long legal road ahead, this is still a tremendous victory for women and for the whole country.
Take The Lead honored the ERA coalition as its Leading Advocate at the Women’s Equality Day Power Up Conference August 26, 2024
I couldn’t help thinking, with the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s logic in mind (she deliberately chose male plaintiffs to challenge gender discrimination, such as in Weinberg v Weisenfeld ), that men should be very happy that their rights can’t be abridged on account of sex.
“Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex” is exactly the simple language of the ERA.
The fight for gender equality has been a long and winding road.
The campaign to ratify the ERA sparked my awakening to the impact individual citizens can have on public policy when I was a young wife, mother of three, and Head Start teacher in Odessa, TX. In 1972, I made my first ever political contribution: $3 to support the campaign to vote the ERA into the Texas Constitution, which voters did that November.
This year marks 102 years that American women have been waiting and working to enshrine equal rights regardless of sex into the Constitution.
Suffragist Alice Paul recognized when she wrote the ERA in 1923 that women’s suffrage, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution ratified in 1920, was just the beginning. Having the power to vote was never supposed to be the end of that 70+ year struggle. The bigger question is how do we use that power on behalf of policies that support equality for all.
As I tell women in the 9 Leadership Power Tools course after showing them the data about how much power they actually have, power unused is power useless.
This is a principle that Dr. King knew deeply and practiced fully. Sherrilyn Ifill wrote in Substack:
“I have come to see how critical it is for us to prove, this year especially, that we have truly absorbed the work and words of Dr. King. King Day always calls on us to challenge ourselves and our country, and this year is no different. In fact this year demands that we honor Dr. King’s work and his unceasing belief and demand that we do the work of confronting the truth that lies at the heart of this country and the truth of our own hearts, as prerequisites to building and sustaining a nation that would resemble ‘the beloved community.’”
On January 20, many people are posting quotes from Dr. King, who was one of the most gifted orators of our history.
My all-time favorite is this one: “The ultimate measure of man [and I am sure were he alive today, he would add ‘woman’] is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
It’s appropriate that we celebrate the ERA today, on the same day that we celebrate Dr. King’s leadership in the fight for civil rights for all.
There will be lawsuits challenging the Equal Rights Amendment, just as the struggle for equal civil rights for Black Americans are being challenged. There will always be anti-equality opponents who will try to take away hard, learned, hard-earned rights.
I predicted some time ago that addressing the ERA would be the last thing Biden would do before turning out the lights and leaving the White House. That was close to accurate.
But claiming victory based on President Biden’s declaration that the ERA is now the law of the land is as valid for supporters of the ERA to do as when opponents of women’s rights fight against it.
I feel sure that the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King would not only heartily approve, he would stand right here, helping to lead the charge.
GLORIA FELDT is the Cofounder and President of Take The Lead, a motivational speaker, a global expert in women’s leadership development and DEI for individuals and companies that want to build gender balance. She is a bestselling author of five books, most recently Intentioning: Sex, Power, Pandemics, and How Women Will Take The Lead for (Everyone’s) Good. Honored as Forbes 50 Over 50, and Former President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, she is a frequent media commentator. Learn more at www.gloriafeldt.com and www.taketheleadwomen.com. Find her @GloriaFeldt on all social media.