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Pros And Cons Of The Equal Rights Amendment

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The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed to guarantee equal rights for women. The ERA was originally written by Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman. In 1923, it was introduced in the Congress for the first time. The ERA has always been highly controversial regarding the meaning of equality for women. Middle-class women generally were supportive. Those speaking for the working class were strongly opposed, arguing that employed women needed special protections regarding working conditions and hours. In 1972, it passed both houses of Congress and was submitted to the state legislatures for ratification. It seemed headed for quick approval until Phyllis Schlafly mobilized conservative women …show more content…

Opponents of the ERA focused on traditional gender roles, such as how men do the fighting in wartime. They pointed out that the amendment would eliminate the men-only draft requirement and guarantee the possibility that women would be subject to conscription and be required to have military combat roles in future wars if it were passed. They appealed to married women by stressing that the amendment would repeal protective laws such as alimony and eliminate the tendency for mothers to obtain custody over their children in divorce cases. It was suggested that single-sex bathrooms would be eliminated if the amendment were passed as well. Traditional women started to oppose the ERA. Schlafly said the ERA was designed for the benefit of young career women and warned that if men and women had to be treated identically it would threaten the security of middle-aged housewives with no job skills. The opposition included states ' rights advocates, some religious groups, and business and insurance interests. Among the arguments against the ERA were that it would prevent husbands from supporting their wives, it would invade privacy, and it would lead to rampant abortion, homosexual marriage, women in combat, and unisex bathrooms. If the ERA becomes part of the Constitution, any law discriminating on the basis of sex will have to meet the strict scrutiny test. This would mean a law that distinguishes between men and women must be "narrowly tailored" to achieve a "compelling government …show more content…

A lot of people were afraid that the child labor laws would take away from the children working on the family property. My thought is that at an early age you need to instill a love for farming. In our area, particularly, farming is more than just an economic thing. It’s a way of life and something you really want to do because, at times, it’s tough. If you don’t love what you do, you’re not going to stay in it. If you instill that in your children and grandchildren at an early age, you can continue to have the family farm. Forms of child labor, including indentured servitude and child slavery, have existed throughout American history. As industrialization moved workers from farms and home workshops into urban areas and factory work, children were often preferred, because factory owners viewed them as more manageable, cheaper, and less likely to strike. Children had always worked, especially in farming. But factory work was hard. A child with a factory job might work 12 to 18 hours a day, six days a week, to earn a

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When Cornelius Vanderbilt died he left his $100 million fortune to his son William Vanderbilt and they both had the same attitude. During the Gilded Age these big business and their owners were thought of as being Robber Barons or Captains of Industry. The poor working conditions that were provided, the corruption they led in government, and their use of child labor shows that they were Robber Barons. Children were used in labor to work a lot and most days of the week. Kids as young as 5 often worked as much as 12 to 14 hours a day for barely any pay.

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At this time in history, there were “two million children under the age of sixteen” working to provide for their families, and some kids beginning labor at the tender ages of “six and seven years (in the cotton

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In 1923, the ERA written by Alice, was introduced into Congress. The Amendment declared “equal rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the US or by any State on account of sex” (“Woman Suffrage”, 2014, para 1). The Amendment was introduced into every Congress through 1972, where it finally passed but failed ratification in 1982. Only 35 states ratified the Amendment by the 1982 deadline. After the failure, the Amendment was again presented to Congress every year, but still fails to get passed.

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Review of Why ERA Failed: Politics, Women’s Rights, and the Amending Process of the Constitution By Mary Frances Berry The struggle for women’s rights has been a long, hard fought battle in American history. The fight for even the most basic of rights, such as the right to vote or control property, often takes decades for a victory to be had. One such initiative that sought a widening of women’s rights was the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) of the 1970s. The ERA sought to put women on equal legal footing as men, and to no ones surprise the movement failed.

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Dakota Hitchcock HIS 200: Applied History Southern New Hampshire University March 5th, 2023 The ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment is a significant historical event due to its battle to end legal and social discrimination against women. During the time period, women did not have the same privileges as men regarding employment, divorce rights, property rights, and the many social privileges men had. This amendment was drafted by suffragist Alice Paul in 1923 and was fought for by women and supporters across America shortly after women gained the right to vote after the 19th Amendment was passed on August 20th, 1920. Despite ERA fighting for equality by being a “proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed

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During the Eighteenth and the early Nineteenth centuries, Child labor was a major part of the industrial revolution, especially in Great Britain where child labor was a large part of the working class and soon became a social and political problem/issue. In late Eighteenth century child labor became a necessary thing for the working class and society of Britain and other countries such as modern day Germany and America. Children were hired because they could do jobs the adults simply couldn 't do because of their sheer size and incapability to do certain things like clean chimneys and fix the machines in the

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The 1970s were a rough year for African-Americans, still fighting for social and political rights in the United States. Consequently, women still did not receive equal rights. However, in 1972, “Congress approved the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the Constitution, which reads: ‘Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex’ (History.com Staff).” Out of the thirty-eight necessary states only twenty-two ratified it right away, it was relieving for the moment because the feminist advocates had been trying to be ratified since 1923. The First African-American woman elected into Congress was Shirley Chisholm.

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Roe vs. Wade is the highly publicized Supreme Court ruling that overturned a Texas interpretation of abortion law and made abortion legal in the United States. The Roe v. Wade decision held that a woman, with her doctor, has the right to choose abortion in earlier months of pregnancy without legal restriction, and with restrictions in later months, based on the right to privacy. As a result, all state laws that limited women 's access to abortions during the first trimester of pregnancy were invalidated by this particular case. State laws limiting such access during the second trimester were upheld only when the restrictions were for the purpose of protecting the health of the pregnant woman. Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in the greater United States, which was not legal at all in many states and was limited by law in others.

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As the rate of industrialization in America grew during the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries, child labor became more and more common. The rapid growth of the economy and the vast amounts of poor immigrants during the Industrial Age in America justified the work of children as young as the age of three. By 1900, over two million children were employed. However, the risks of involving child labor greatly outweighed the positives; child labor was inhumane, cruel, and caused physical deformities among children. Children typically worked in coal mines, mills, and factories which contained many life-threatening hazards.

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Child labor during the 18th and 19th century did not only rapidly develop an industrial revolution, but it also created a situation of difficulty and abuse by depriving children of edjucation, good physical health, and the proper emotional wellness and stability. In the late 1700 's and early 1800 's, power-driven machines replaced hand labor for making most manufactured items. Many of America 's factories needed a numerous amount of workers for a cheap salary. Because of this, the amount of child laborers have been growing rapidly over the early 1800s.

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On March 22, 1972, the Equal Rights Amendment was passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification. This amendment, otherwise known as the ERA, stated that lawful rights should not be denied based on gender. Unfortunately, the ERA has yet to be ratified by enough states to be added to the Constitution. Equality among races and genders has evolved throughout history, but the lack of equality continues to present numerous problems. Many celebrities and speakers lend their voices to the greater cause of impartiality.

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Cons of the Equal Rights Amendment The challenges of a woman’s place in the public eye has and still is a critical issue at the start of the 21st century. The women’s rights movement in the late 19th century was the beginning of driving society to recognize women and give them a financial, political, and social part in the public arena. Women have made great strides toward fairness; which has changed the points of view of some, notwithstanding, it has not been completely accomplished.

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However, this industry is not well regulated by the government as it promotes slavery and other unfair situations for the workers. The workers that work on the plantations farms work an average of 12 hours a day. The youngest workers are around 8 years old. More than half of these kids can’t attend school because their families usually can’t pay for the basic needs of living like food. Therefore, parents send their kids to work on farms to help provide for their families (Refworld).

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This proposed amendment, commonly referred to as the equal rights amendment, is representative of both the success of the women’s rights movement and the conflict between conservative and liberal feminists. The origins of the push for an equal rights amendment go back to the women’s suffrage movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Most American women of the nineteenth century didn’t want to be equal to men. They believed in the traditional gender roles and family structure, where the husband worked to support his family, and the wife was in charge of domestic affairs, such as cooking, cleaning, and raising the children.

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855 Words | 4 Pages

In the small towns they at least worked for their families but in the city the worked harder, in harsher conditions and for a huge company. This resulted in more hours of work and more sickness because of how hard they worked. Child labor is still present today. More than 59,600 of the workers in the U.S.A are under 14 and many other countries have it worst. We can see how child labor was present in the industrial revolution, but we can also see how it is still present today.

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