Date: 1982-07-14
Speaker: JAMES K. COYNE (republican)
Chamber: H

Madam Speaker. the equal rights amendment is another important step in the journey to equality for all Americans. Many decades have passed since this journey began and many milestones have been reached. but so much more ground is waiting to be traversed. The equal rights amendment is not a superfluous . exercise inserted midstride in the journey to equality. Although there are now more women in college than at any time in our Nations history. more women in State legislatures than at any time in our Nations history. and more women in Congress than at any time in our Nations history. full equality has yet to be realized. We cannot look at these achievements and complacently allege that women are now equal and no more needs to be done. Just as the right to vote was a critical advance. ment in the march toward equality for women so. too. will be the passage of the ERA. Without the equal rights amendment. equality must be litigated case by casea slow process that does not insure universal protection. Women should not have to go to court to fight for equality in the workplace. equality in pay. equality in educational opportunity. equality in pension benefits. or in social security. Neither should the equality of women be dependent on laws that can be repealed or changed by a simple majority. The rights guaranteed by the Constitution and the responsibilities imposed by the Constitution cannot and should not be denied by reason of a persons sex. The passage of the equal rights amendment is a vital step in the inexorable march toward equality for women. It must. and will. be realized.e a Mr. BROWN of California. Madam Speaker. our Nation which was founded on the principle of "Justice for all." has historically been unjust to over onehalf of its population: women. From the time that Abigail Adams wrote to her husband. John. only partly tongue in cheek. "If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladles. we are determined to foment a rebellion. and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation." women have been struggling. They struggled for over a century to obtain what should have been a simple right. the right to vote. Now they are struggling for another simple and hardfought right. the right of equality. With todays introduction of the equal rights amendment (ERA). the history of this struggle continues. The necessity for this struggle is not something to be proud of. Since it was originally introduced in 1923. the ERA has fought a constant battle against those who wish to maintain their power. Yet time and time again polls overwhelmingly indicate that the vast majority of Anmericans support this simple constitutional amendment. At the first womens convention at Seneca Falls. N.Y.. in 1848. it resolved. "That it is the duty of the women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise." It took over 70 years to obtain that right. but what is significant about that resolution is that it pro. claimed it womens duty to secure their rights. Just as men must participate today. they must have participated then. but the impetus. the leadership. the drive must come from women. Women have learned these important skills in their participation of the abolitionist. labor. and civil rights movements. It is no coincidence that after each of these movements obtained great strides. women in turn called attention to their demands. their rights. This last decade of struggle has been particularly difficult and frustratingthe ERA goal so close and yet failing. But one thing women did learn. and unfortunately it was a hard lesson. is that women must fight for their rights. As simple. as sensible. as those rights may seem. no one will give them away. And once those rights are secured. as undoubtedly they will be. the fight to preserve those rights will have to be maintained. Recently. women have begun to understand just how vulnerable they still are as nearly every program. every advance. has been attacked or weakened by the Reagan administration. The Womens Education Equity Act. title IX. family planning. the equal rights amendment. and countless other programs and regulations have been threatened. am pleased to see that women are learning to be politically aware and are striking back. Then. perhaps their daughters will not have to fight the same battle.. until one day the motto of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony will ring true. "Men. their rights and nothing more. women. their rights and nothing less."e