Don't Run the Clock Out on Equality
Let's Enshrine Equality in the Constitution by Publishing the ERA
It’s 2025 and there are still no guarantees for women’s equality in the US Constitution!
Women have been fighting for equality in the US ever since the Revolutionary War. Abigail Adams, the wife of the second president of the US, John Adams, famously wrote to her husband in 1776 and asked him to “remember the ladies” while he was helping to write the new laws governing the new nation. Suffragettes fought long and hard for women to have the right to vote. The 19th amendment that granted this right to women was first proposed in 1878 but was not ratified until 1920.
My first Women’s March in January 2017
Even though the 19th amendment granted women the right to vote, they were still not equals in society. First, this right to vote for women was not extended to Black women until the Civil Rights movement and the passage of the Voting Right Act of 1965. Despite winning suffrage, women were still barred from serving on juries in many states. They also encountered difficulty running for office. Women were not even allowed to open bank accounts on their own until the 1960s. The right to birth control was not guaranteed until two Supreme Court decisions were decided: Griswold v Connecticut and Eisenstadt v Baird. (Side note: Griswold is the case that Sen Marsha Blackburn has said she would want reversed and Justice Clarence Thomas has also said should be reconsidered.)
The Equal Rights Amendment, first introduced in Congress in 1923 (over 100 years ago!), gained traction in the 1960s during the women’s movement. It was reintroduced in Congress in 1971 and approved by the US Senate in 1972, then sent to the states for ratification. Tennessee was the 9th state to ratify the amendment on April 4, 1972. TN was also one of the 5 states who then went on to rescind their ratification despite there being no provision for rescinding ratification in the constitution. Virginia was the most recent state to ratify the ERA on January 27, 2020, making it the 38th state to do so and helping cross the finish line of three fourths of the 50 states required.
My second Women’s March in January 2018 with my best friend Katy
The language of the ERA is simple but powerful: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”
Why advocate for the ERA? The amendment would lay down the groundwork for the return of reproductive rights, protect LGBTQ rights, make it easier to protect the right to contraception and give women protection from all sorts of discriminatory practices that still happen to this day. (Did you know women physicians are still paid less than their male colleagues???)
Hotel Zena in DC for the American Medical Women’s Association Board Meeting in Sept 2024
Many organizations, including the American Medical Women’s Association, have been pushing for President Biden to tell the archivist to publish the ERA in the constitution, which some argue is the last step needed for it to become the 28th amendment.
Time is running out! It’s unlikely that the incoming administration or newly elected Congress will act on this. We need to push for this before inauguration day - January 20th!
What can you do to help advocate for the ERA?
Post on on social media and tag @POTUS, use hashtag #ERANow
Send a letter to your Congressional representative, asking them to sign on to the discharge petition to allow vote on ERA ratification on House floor: https://eracoalition.org/take-action/hj-res-25/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=7c4de374-d52d-4a64-875c-f36dfff807b9
Send a letter to POTUS and VPOTUS with League of Women Voters, asking for ERA publication: :https://www.lwv.org/take-action/president-must-immediately-publish-equal-rights-amendment
Send a text to President Biden, asking him to publish the ERA at (302) 404-0880.
Sample text: President Biden, Please enshrine equal rights for women in the US constitution. Tell the archivist to publish the ERA.
Contact the White House to ask POTUS to publish the ERA in the National Archives: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/share/
Example email to the White House, asking POTUS to publish the ERA:
President Biden,
Please use the final days of your presidency to enshrine gender equality! Use your presidential powers to instruct the archivist to publish the Equal Rights Amendment as the 28th amendment to the US Constitution. My rights as a woman and citizen of this country depend on being seen as an equal. The rights of LGBTQ+ citizens depend on equality as well. The ERA would guarantee equality for all, no matter their sex or gender. I urge you to publish the ERA now!
Thanks,
Katrina Green, MD FAAEM
Dr. Katrina Green, MD FAAEM is a board certified emergency physician, and public safety and health advocate. She chairs the advocacy committee of AMWA and was elected to serve on the board of directors for 2024-26.
Join the ERA Coalition
If you’re a physician who identifies as a woman or want to support women in medicine, consider joining or donating to support AMWA in their mission to push for equity in medicine - our organization just celebrated it’s 109th birthday last year!
Check your voter registration
 | A guest post by
|
Appreciate this reminder Dr G, let us March, Let us Advocate, Let us be FOR