Men and women are equal, but we are not the same. Biological differences between the sexes are more than skin-deep, and profoundly shape our lives. The law must recognize this reality in certain circumstances, such as in sex-segregated sports teams or prisons, or it risks placing women and girls in harmful or even dangerous situations. An understanding of these differences will go a long way towards being able to tackle problems like sexual predation, instead of “solutions” that often gut basic fairness guarantees like due process or presumption of innocence.
On Wednesday, Virginia ratified the Equal Rights Amendment and was celebrated by proponents as the 38th state to do so, which they claim meets the required threshold for amending the highest law in the land.
