The Equal Rights Amendment, which would amend the U.S. Constitution to guarantee equal rights to all regardless of sex, was first proposed in the 1920s and came close to passing in the 1970s. With gender issues dominating headlines, the #MeToo movement shining an intense spotlight on the issue of sexual violence and harassment, and women fighting more openly for equal pay and equal rights, the ERA has taken on a new relevance. At a discussion at Harvard Kennedy School, panelists discussed the ERA, the long battle for ratification, and the renewed campaign to add it to the Constitution.
The panelists were , a deputy campaign manager for Mitt Romney鈥檚 2012 presidential campaign and a founding partner of Burning Glass Consulting; , an activist and actress whose work includes S.W.A.T., Kingdom, and Free The Nipple; Jane Mansbridge, Charles F. Adams Professor of Political Leadership and Democratic Values and the author of Why We Lost the ERA; and , CEO of Global Situation Room and director of press advance for Barack Obama from 2007 to 2015. , executive director of the , moderated the discussion.
鈥It shouldn鈥檛 be controversial. This should be sort of a no-brainer. 鈥 It doesn鈥檛 matter where you stand on any of these other policy issues: you can be for the Equal Rights Amendment. And there鈥檚 no reason for anybody to be opposing it.鈥
Katie Packer Beeson
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鈥淚 believe there鈥檚 nothing more important than women being protected under federal law. 鈥 The majority of countries around the globe have provisions in their constitutions that men and women are equal. 鈥 Hopefully the ERA will be the 28th amendment by 2020.鈥
Lina Esco
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鈥淲e were bipartisan back in the day. The Republican Party first put the ERA on the platform back in the 1940s. It was always really a bipartisan act. And [today] it might be that something like this could cut across the polarization that鈥檚 driving us all crazy.鈥
Jane Mansbridge
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鈥淥ur goal is to ratify the ERA by 2020, the 100th anniversary of women鈥檚 right to vote. 鈥 Language is power, and our language needs to reflect our values.鈥
Johanna Maska
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鈥淲hen we look at women and our roles in leadership, we are nowhere near equal. In the public sector, women hold roughly 20 percent of the seats in Congress, both in the House and the Senate. When we look at CEOs, we鈥檙e still in single-digit numbers looking at Fortune 500 companies. We have a long way to go. But it鈥檚 not just cultural: it is within the law. The ERA is a way of stating not just an aspirational goal, but a floor鈥攖hat women have to have the same equality that men do.鈥