A member of Congress recently reintroduced the Equal Rights Amendment (yawn). CNSNews did a good job pointing out the irony of what of the arguments made on behalf of the ERA:
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) told activists rallying on Capitol Hill in support of the newly reintroduced Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), that the United States should join 27 other countries that have equality guarantees for women, including Rwanda, Algeria, China and Afghanistan.
“It does make a difference if an Equal Rights Amendment is in place or not,” Lee told the people who gathered outside of the Capitol on Tuesday.
“Twenty-seven other countries, including Rwanda, Afghanistan, Algeria and China have equality provisions,” Lee said.
And women in Afghanistan, Algeria, and China are just basking in the joy and equality that their ERA provisions have afforded them? Wrong! As CNSNews goes on to report, many of these countries are human right disasters.
American women aren’t suffering for lack of the ERA and already have equality enshrined in law. If the ERA were to pass it would be at best useless, and at worst, an avenue for a new round of litigation premised on the idea that there can be absolutely no differences between the sexes (say, absolutely no single sex education, even though there are clear educational benefits for some in the single sex environment). The good thing is that overwhelming women in the U.S. recognize that we already have equal rights and don’t need another constitutional amendment.