by Freeda Cathcart
Dozens of people attend the “Other Countries Have It, It’s Time for the U.S. Too” event held Thursday, Jan. 9 at Hollins University. The program started with a short video Got Rights? by Equal Means Equal. A panel made up of women from different countries that have equality in their constitutions contrasted the differences with the U.S.
* Fay Crawshaw, president of the League of Women Voters of the Roanoke Valley, who was born in the United Kingdom, compared the divergent paths of equality between the U.K. and the U.S. Both countries had movements to support equality in the 1970’s. The U.K. passed the Sex Discrimination Act in 1975 and the U.S. is still working on ratification of the ERA. Since then the U.K. has had two women elected to be Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher in 1979 and Theresa May in 2016.
* Grace Church, born in Kenya, spoke on the challenges of governing in a country with over forty recognized tribes with their respective laws. When she lived in Kenya, women were treated as chattel. She moved to the U.S. before Kenya added equality into their constitution in 2010. She spoke about how even though equality is in the constitution there is still much work left to do for women to have equal opportunities.
* Rina Merian who was born in Mexico but raised in the United States spoke about the culture of machismo even though Mexico has had equality in their constitution since 1917. She recalled when they returned to visit her sister and wasn’t allowed to wear shorts. Recently she read an article that Mexico City had changed their policy for school uniforms. Girls can wear pants and boys can wear skirts. She spoke on how Mexico was protecting more freedoms than the U.S. currently does.
* Dr. Varsha Desai, was born in India but has lived longer in the United States. She started with the religious foundation of the Hindu religion, which describes the attributes of the gods and goddesses as being equal. After India left the British Empire in 1947 a constitution that included equality was created. Indira Gandhi was India’s Prime Minister from 1966-1977 and again from 1980-1984. Despite equality being in the constitution and women elected leaders, there is a strong cultural preference for the birth of a boy, which is celebrated, compared to birth of a girl, which is not. Back in the 1990’s this resulted in over 70% of abortions being performed because the fetus was identified as female. Abortions based on the sex of the fetus are currently banned under Article 14 and 15 of the Indian Constitution as a violation of women’s rights.
* Courtney Chenette Esq., a constitutional scholar and professor at Hollins University, explained some of the potential legal challenges to the ratification of the ERA. She explained how the constitution gives very little guidance on the ratification of amendments. Already lawsuits have been launched. One saying once the ERA is ratified in Virginia it should be immediately added to the constitution; and another saying that the ERA cannot be ratified. The ERA Coalition recently released the following information:
• On rescission: Once a state ratifies an amendment, its job is done. It can’t undo the ratification. When the 14th Amendment became part of the Constitution, the list of states ratifying the amendment included states that had ratified but later voted to rescind their ratifications, because those later votes were not recognized as valid.
• The “time limit”: The time limit for ratification appears only in the joint resolution of Congress introducing the ERA, not in the ERA itself. But Article 5 of the Constitution—which governs amendments—doesn’t mention time limits or deadlines. It says an amendment becomes effective whenever three-quarters of the states have voted to ratify. No court has ever used a time limit in a joint resolution of Congress to stop an amendment actually ratified by three-quarters of the states.
• Action in Congress: Whether the time limit is effective or not, Congress could resolve the issue simply by removing it. In 1978 Congress voted to extend the ERA ratification time limit, and right now both the House and the Senate are considering bipartisan bills to eliminate the time limit. Please call your representatives today and urge them to support those bills. “
Virginia’s Attorney General Mark Herring has pledged that once Virginia ratified the ERA he would defend the will of Virginians and Americans.
A clip from a video of the April 30, 2019 U.S. House Judiciary Committee was shown stressing the importance of ratifying the ERA now and why it’s not necessary or beneficial to start over from the beginning.
Freeda Cathcart, organizer of the event, informed people about federal legislation to remove the deadline from the preamble to the ERA that has been voted on in the House Judiciary Committee and is waiting to be voted on in the House. She encouraged people to call Speaker Pelosi to encourage her to bring HJ Res 79 to a vote. There is also the bipartisan SJ Res 6 that has been filed by Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski and Democratic Senator Ben Cardin that is waiting to be voted on. People are encouraged to contact Senator Lindsey Graham chair of the Judiciary Committee and ask for a hearing and vote.
Cathcart is excited that this year we have the votes in Virginia to ratify the ERA because those blocking it in past years have lost their seats or leadership after November’s elections. She shared her pictures from this Wednesday’s opening day at the General Assembly where hundreds of people showed up to support the ERA. “It’s still important to contact our state representatives to ask them to vote for the ERA, she reminded people, and to watch what unfolds on the federal level! If Congress doesn’t pass the legislation to remove the deadline then those representatives can be removed from their seats or leadership in this year’s upcoming November election.
When asked why some people might oppose the ERA, Cathcart remarked: some people are worried there will be changes they don’t like such as no longer having men and women’s bathrooms. She assured them that she’s traveled to countries that have equality in their constitutions and they still have men and women bathrooms. Ratifying the ERA is an important step to protect women’s rights. We’ll still have work to do but we need to catch up with other countries by including equality in our country’s constitution.
