The Equal Rights Amendment is 100 years old, and it took nearly 50 years for the required 38 states to ratify it. Now supporters of the ERA are waiting for the U.S. Congress to act.
The ERA has not passed and is not part of the United States Constitution.
Until the U.S. Congress passes the ERA, women are left with a single constitutional right: The right to vote.
“Until this becomes part of the U.S. Constitution, women’s rights to a credit card, to a home loan, to health care, to her own body are not guaranteed,” said Sheryl Swingley, president of the American Association of University Women / Muncie Branch. “Without the ERA, too many gains women have made the last 100 years could be lost.”
The Muncie Branch of AAUW and the League of Women Voters of Muncie-Delaware County jointly hosted a panel discussion about the ERA and the importance of voting during Women’s Week on March 27 at Ball State University’s Student Center Forum Room. About 50 people attended, including students, professors, community members and Ball State University First Lady Jennifer Mearns, who is a member of the AAUW Muncie Branch.
Sue Errington, State House Representative for District 34; Melissa Gentry, BSU Map Collections Supervisor; and Dr. Linda Hanson, LWV State President and Spokesperson for the Muncie-Delaware County League, made presentations. Dr. Melinda Messineo, a Professor of Sociology at BSU, moderated the discussion. All are members of both AAUW and the League.
Indiana ranks 50th in voter turnout, Hanson said, urging action to get more people to register to vote in the upcoming election – and then to vote.
Gentry introduced one of the lesser-known suffragists, a woman with ties to Muncie. “Indiana was once a very progressive state, and Ida Husted Harper played a critical but behind-the-scenes role in advancing a woman’s right to vote,” Gentry said.
Harper was in the first graduating class of Muncie Central High School, and she went on to become a prominent figure in the women’s suffrage movement in the United States. She also wrote a three-volume biography of Susan B. Anthony at Anthony’s request.
Why is ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment still important?
“There remains a serious wage gap for women, and Indiana is one of only 38 states with no maternity leave policy,” Rep. Errington said. “There will never be economic equality until there is a ban on sex discrimination.”
To learn what you can do, go to eracoalition.org.
Another petition supporting the addition of the ERA to the U.S. Constitution is available at Sign4ERA.org.