Breaking the System: Stuck Behind the Male Seal of Approval

The circumstances surrounding the ERA and the (little) progress made.

In 1973, the Equal Rights Amendment made it through both the House and Senate, yet

failed to meet the minimum threshold of states for ratification. The proposed amendment

contained three sections: one declaring that equal rights under the law shall not be denied on the

basis of sex, one giving Congress the power to enforce the amendment, and one setting a

palatable effect date of two years in the future. Just about a decade earlier, the Civil Rights Act

was passed as a culmination of the Civil Rights movement. While second wave feminists fought

alongside the Civil Rights Movement and modeled many of their tactics after successful civil

rights efforts, the feminists’ subsequent attempt at legislation never resulted in law. To date,

there is no Equal Rights Amendment, despite several later attempts to resurface the legislation.

Who needs the ERA today, anyway? Women have made so much progress…right?

Socially and societally, women are doing better than they were in the 1970s. Women

grew from occupying only about 38% of the work force to outnumbering working men. Women

outnumber men in higher education. A female candidate even won the popular vote to become

president of the United States of America. So, barring the lack of the ERA, it seems that women

have been doing alright. However, it is important to consider who is, and has been, allowing

women to make advancements toward equality. Who dictates and legislates how women live

their lives? In that regard, we haven’t made much progress at all.

Let’s rewind.

Alice Paul and the writers of the ERA were extremely strategic in writing the

amendment. The attempt to pass the ERA was an extension of the liberal/older branch of second

wave feminism that strove to work within “the system” and to create change through measured

governance, rather than spectacle and radicalism. In attempting to make the ERA plausible, the
writers needed to package the amendment as something appealing to the system. Who comprised

the system? Men.

In 1975, every senator was male and less than 5% of the house was female. Essentially,

women were standing on the outside of the system and handing their fate to an almost entirely

male body for review. Men decided whether to grant women equality. Women, despite their

powerful social movement and years of fighting, lacked any agency regarding their own social

status. It is no surprise that the ERA contents are so mild, as women were pitching their case to

around 500 men and hoping for the best outcome. There was no room for anything that could be

perceived as demanding or controversial if the writers wanted the amendment to have a chance at

survival.

Women were on the outside of the system.

It was a big deal that a bill fighting for women’s equality made it as far as it did, even

though it was not successfully ratified. It was one of the first times women’s voices established a

presence on the Congress floor. Since the 1970s, women have broken down several barriers and

made their voices heard in government. If Alice Paul were to look at American government

today, she would probably be pretty content. After all, we have legislation supporting access to

birth control and proposing paid maternity leave, several non-discrimination acts, bills to keep

girls in school, anti-sexual harassment legislation, and far more. At first glance, it appears that

women have broken into the system.

However, inequality persists. 2018 brought the rise of the #MeToo movement, where

women are actively addressing pervasive sexual harassment. Women are still paid less than men,

a fact that has remained largely unchanged for the last 10 years. Women continue to be barred

from traditionally male jobs, creating a societally accepted segregation in the workforce that
enables pay disparity. The pay disparity is even more severe for Hispanic and African American

women. In the cases of both the #MeToo movement and the gender wage gap, women can be

found on the frontlines fighting for their equality. The 2017 Women’s March brought about half

a million people to the U.S. Capitol to protest. However, progress seems stagnant. If women

have seemingly broken into the system, why have we not seen change?

Women are still outside of the system.

It is great that women’s voices are being heard and that there is some legislation

addressing persisting inequalities. However, men are still predominantly the people hearing

women’s voices and are still heavily involved in discussions dictating women’s quality of life.

Think about it- the fate of Roe v. Wade and women’s reproductive rights is in the hands of six

men and only three women. This means that men will make the ultimate decision of whether

women have control over their bodies.

Only 107 out of 535 congressional seats are currently held by women. That number is

significantly better than the 1973 Congress, but it is not good enough. Sure, women’s issues are

being heard. But, almost 50 years after the ERA, men are still deciding the fate of women’s

issues. Men are debating birth control. Men are debating sexual harassment. Men are debating

maternity leave. Despite women who are actively trying to fix the wage gap and pervasive sexual

harassment, men are still responsible for sealing the change. With only about of the fifth of

congress as women, the stage largely remains the same: women presenting their plights and

struggles to men, who get to pick apart the issue and make the final call.

107 women is good. 268 women would be better.

To truly break and enter the system, women need equal representation in government.

Even though there are men in government who work as allies to women and fight for positive
policy measures, a man will never understand what it is to live as a woman. There are simply

different experiences that women endure to which words will never do justice. The only way for

a woman be represented is to have her elected and sworn into office.

The ERA paved the walkway to the system for women. Without the ERA and the work of

second wave feminists, women would likely be even further outside of the system than they are

today. To deny the significance of the progress women have made would be ignorant. However,

to stop fighting and to feel satisfied with a government that does not fully represent women

negates the entire mission of past feminists. While it is easy to be swept along in the illusion that

women are being represented by “women’s issues” addressed in government, it is important to

remember who is making decisions, and who has been making the decisions since the dawn of

the feminist movement.

Micro-level solutions to women’s inequality are only temporary bandages on a much

larger systemic problem. Until women are making their own decisions, the system still stands

strong.

Works Cited:

Dolan, Julie, Deckman, Melissa and Swers, Michelle, 2018. Women and Politics: Paths to Power
and Political Influence, 3rd ed., Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, Chapters 1 and 2
Calfas, Jennifer. 2018. “Women have pushed for equal pay for decades. It’s sad how much
progress we’ve made.” Money (Online), April 10, 2018, http://time.com/money/5225986/equal-
pay-day-2018-gender-wage-gap/

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/31/us/equal-rights-amendment-illinois.html

https://www.booker.senate.gov/?p=general&id=36

https://www.equalrightsamendment.org/states.htm

http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/current-numbers

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/14/us/roe-v-wade-explainer.html

https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-01-02-0248

https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/R43244.html#_Toc514855849

https://www.statista.com/statistics/198423/senators-in-the-us-congress-by-gender-since-1975/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ccap/2012/02/16/the-male-female-ratio-in-college/

http://theeverygirl.com/9-surprising-things-the-womens-movement-accomplished/

https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-act#section_3
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/subjects/womens_rights/5913#text=women

https://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2017-01-20/timeline-the-womens-rights-
movement-in-the-us

Class Notes, The ERA, Women and Politics, Nicole Bartels, 9/12/18