YOUTH & EDUCATION
It’s E.R.A. era, at last, pols tell Girls Club
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELL-DOMENECH
Last week, Congressmember Carolyn Maloney
and Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul
visited the Lower Eastside Girls Club to talk
about an important issue for the teens — one that
has also been an issue for women of all ages for decades.
What they told the young women is that they have
the power to fi nally ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.
The E.R.A. would guarantee equal legal rights
for all Americans regardless of sex, something that
has yet to be explicitly included in the U.S. Constitution.
It’s an issue that both women have previously
fought for.
“So what are we talking about here, the Equal
Rights Amendment, have you ever heard of this before?”
Hochul asked as the roomful of young women
patiently sat in silence waiting for her explanation.
The E.R.A. was written and fi rst introduced in
Congress in 1923. In 1943 the amendment was rewritten
to include its current wording: “Equality of
rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged
by the United States or by any state on account of
sex.”
It was this version that was eventually passed
by the Senate and the House of Representatives in
1972 by a two-thirds majority and sent for ratifi cation
with a seven-year deadline. The deadline was
then extended to 1982. But by the time the deadline
passed, only 35 states had ratifi ed the amendment.
In order for the E.R.A. offi cially to become part of
the Constitution, 38 states need to ratify it.
“One would think that by now in 2019 we could
fi x that problem, right?” Hochul said. “What is the
obstacle? Because we are simply trying to write the
rights of women in our Constitution.”
The obstacle, according to Hochul is “people out
there who want to keep the status quo. People who
do not believe that women should be paid the same
amount as men for doing the same job, have equal
rights in the workplace, have access to childcare or
should not have to worry about being harassed at
school or work.
“We don’t get to sit on our sidelines anymore,”
she said. “We have to be out there, and young people
have tremendous power.”
Hochul then referenced the massive wave of teenage
activism for gun reform following the Stoneman
Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida,
on Feb. 14 of last year that killed 17 and injured 17
more.
“That is the power of young people,” she said.
While the lieutenant governor spoke of the future,
Maloney refl ected on the past — and announced a
new effort to honor one particular women’s rights
pioneer.
“This month I would like to do two things,” Maloney
said. “I want to put in a bill in Congress to
create a statue for Harriet Tubman.”
The congressmember did not specify where the
new statue might be located. New York City is already
home to a sculpture of the abolitionist at the
Harriet Tubman Memorial in Harlem.
The second woman Maloney wants to honor is
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whose
Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul and Congressmember Carolyn Maloney, front row,
fourth and sixth from left, told Lower East Side Girls Club members about the new push to
finally pass the E.R.A.
Women protesting for passage of the E.R.A. in the 1970s.
image was the victim of anti-Semitic graffi ti at the
Nassau Ave. G-line subway stop in Brooklyn on
March 14.
“I think that the best way to fi ght back is why
don’t we name a post offi ce after Ruth Bader Ginsburg,”
she said. “Let’s fi ght back.”
Maloney then thanked Assemblymember Rebecca
Seawright for her work in passing the Equal Rights
Amendment Resolution in the New York State Assembly
in 2017, calling on Congress to act on the
long-stalled amendment. Maloney also thanked
state Senator Julia Salazar, chairperson of the Committee
on Women’s Health, who is introducing the
same piece of legislation in the state Senate.
Both politicians had representatives in the room.
Although most in the room were on the same
page as the congressmember and lieutenant governor,
some wanted to know if the E.R.A. as it stands
now, really is as progressive and inclusive as the pols
presented it to be.
COURTESY LES GIRLS CLUB
“How do you plan to address the intersectionality
of gender and orientation?” asked Shandra Rogers,
17, one of the Girls Club members. Rogers added
that the idea of gender is very different in 2019 than
it was when the E.R.A. was drafted decades ago.
According to reporting from Politico, some
progressives, including state Senator Liz Krueger,
believe the act’s language is too limiting, and that
there should indeed be more categories, such as
gender expression, pregnancy and mental disability.
Krueger introduced an amendment two years ago
that included 12 new categories.
But Maloney stated that she thought the language
of the amendment as it stands was completely inclusive.
“We are very cognizant of the need to make sure
that we don’t hit this intersectionality and make that
the view of gender is not just binary,” Hochul said.
“In my opinion, it covers everybody,” Maloney
said.
Schneps Media TVG March 28, 2019 19