How to change the rights of women in the United States forever …

As our country tries to find common ground after the #metoo movement erupted last year, many people have asked how we can move into a post-gender world. A world where someone’s gender doesn’t limit their chances of success or deny them from receiving preferential benefits over another gender.

Here is one powerful way that we can transform gender inequality in the United States of America: The Equal Rights Amendment.

The forefathers of the United States were wise enough to predict that the Constitution would need to be amended, which is why they made it possible to update the Constitution to reflect the changing social realities of the times.

A historic moment is upon us. The Equal Rights Amendment (“ERA”) is one state away from being ratified. This amendment gives women a place in the Constitution, alongside men, by making it illegal to deny or abridge a citizen’s rights on account of their sex.

While this should already be in effect as we’re now in 2018, it is unfortunately not. With the 19th Amendment ratified in 1920, women finally got the right to vote, and quickly after introduced the Equal Rights Amendment in 1923 so that they could be protected with all other rights in the Constitution.

But it was sort of left hanging for a number of decades, and finally, the Equal Rights Amendment passed through Congress in 1972 and went back to the states for ratification — which requires that three quarters of the states pass the Amendment. In 1982 the Equal Rights Amendment had only 35 states ratified, which was three states short. (In other words, in order to pass, a constitutional amendment needs 38 states to ratify it.) In March of 2017, Nevada ratified the Equal Rights Amendment, and this year, on May 30th 2018, Illinois became the 37th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.

We are so very close. We literally only need one more state to ratify this Amendment.

We’ve witnessed the harmful direct and indirect consequences that have resulted without this protection for women in our country’s Constitution. Some examples include the unfair healthcare treatment of women (especially in terms of maternity care and childbirth) — while others include the wide gender pay gap, and often a lack of protection or justice for women who have been abused.

At least 185 countries already have a gender equality provision in their Constitution, but the United States is one of seven that does not.The United States compels other countries, including Afghanistan and Japan, to include women’s equal rights in their Constitutions, but we have been unwilling to provide these protections to women and girls in our own country.

Further, the United Nations recently ranked the United States as the 10th most dangerous place in the world for women. According to the article: “A survey by the Thomson Reuters Foundation of about 550 experts in women’s issues around the globe labeled the U.S. the 10th most dangerous nation in terms of the risk of sexual violence, harassment and being coerced into sex.”

We deserve better than this.

The text of the Equal Rights Amendment states: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”

23 words that can change the face of women’s rights in this country forever.

How You Can Help

PLEASE spread the word and help us ratify the Equal Rights Amendment so that all Americans can be part of our Constitution, and so that we can all live in a country that truly promotes global consciousness.

Note: Right now, it looks like both Virginia & Arizona are close to having the votes they need to ratify this Amendment. If you live in one of those two states, please call your Representatives and tell them to vote on the ERA in January. In fact, tell them that if they want you to vote for them in November they need to sign the equality pledge and commit to voting for the ERA now. You will be changing the course of history for every woman and girl in this country.

Here is the phone number list of Virginia Senators & Representatives. Call them and use your voice!

Please sign up here & share with friends if you want women to have equal rights.

You can follow me on Medium.