By Dr. Carmen Schaye, NWPC Vice President of Diversity and Outreach
In a letter dated February 8th, 2022, U.S. Senators Mitt Romney (R-UT), Rob Portman (R-OH), and Ron Johnson (R-WI), wrote David Ferriero, the Archivist of the United States, urging him not to certify the Equal Rights Amendment. Supporters of the ERA urge Ferriero to publish the ERA as the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The ERA is an amendment putting protection for women and other marginalized genders directly into the United States Constitution. At the heart of this conflict is a dispute between the beneficiaries of colonial patriarchy who do not want to change the status quo, and advocates of women’s equality, particularly women of color, who experience the disparities most directly as part of their everyday lives.
The ERA would prevent discrimination against LGBTQ+ women and prevent rollbacks in women’s rights. Conservatives express concerns about the weakening of anti-abortion regulations and the rights of churches, and the strengthening of gay and transgender rights. With the increased diversity of statehouse legislatures, overcoming the racism of the 1920s women’s suffrage movement, and allying with the LGBTQ+ and progressive movements across ethnic and racial groups, women of color are rising to the challenge, leading the way to a new era in equal rights for all Americans.
By using the ERA as a legal precedent, women of color will specifically benefit in cases involving equal pay, fair healthcare coverage that addresses maternal mortality and coverage for caregivers, gender testing, public education, divorce, child custody, property, domestic violence, and sexual assault by having a fundamental legal remedy that is permanent and can’t be rescinded. Laws against domestic violence and sexual harassment, like Title IX, which protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs, sports, or activities that receive federal assistance, and the Equal Pay Act, which requires that men and women in the workplace be given equal pay for equal work, are not permanent protections for women. These mandates can be rescinded at any time, as in rulings such as the 1976 Supreme Court case Craig v. Boren that found men and women could be treated differently under the law if it served an important governmental objective.Since women of color are the most vulnerable, the passage of the ERA specifically makes their lives better by guaranteeing beyond any shadow of a doubt that discrimination on the basis of sex has no place in the United States, putting women on a permanent equal footing with equal protections under the law in all 50 states.
Since the beginning of colonization of North America, women of color have been a primary target of discrimination and exploitation, where only white men with property had citizenship rights and protections. Discriminated against not only on the basis of gender and sex, but on the basis of race, since the founding of the U.S., women of color have the most to gain from the ERA being certified as part of the Constitution. With the ERA, laws making women second-class citizens would be changed so they become equal persons under the law. With the ERA certified as part of the Constitution, if women’s rights are violated, they have a strong constitutional federal law to demand legal recognition and enforcement of their rights.
Women of color are more at risk than white women without the ERA. Women of color are the most at risk for the same reasons that they are the most at risk to suffer disparities regarding compensation for equal work for equal pay, childcare access, health care access, pregnancy protections and maternity leave, domestic and sexual violence, and incarceration rates. Domestic violence, sexual harassment and assault, and child prostitution most directly impact women, particularly women of color. In every category of health care, reproductive rights, workplace fairness, and family- friendly workplace policies, women of color have more to risk without ERA, and more to gain with it.
In the workplace, the ERA would strengthen protections against pay discrimination, based on gender and sex, such as the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, directly benefiting women of color who are more at risk of discrimination. America’s gender wage gap affects all women directly, but with women of color suffering the most severe gap. According to a January 2022 study by the National Partnership for Women & Families, women in the U.S. across all racial and ethnic groups are typically paid 83 cents for every dollar paid to men. Even today after Lilly Ledbetter, Latinas are typically paid 57 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men, while Native American women are paid 60 cents, Black women 64 cents, and White women 79 cents. Latina, Native American, Black, and Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander women consistently are at the highest risk without ERA protections. According to The Gender Policy Report’s 2020 edition, a woman will lose about $1 million in wages over her lifetime compared to men because of the pay gap. With the ERA, women of color have the most to lose and the most to gain in pay equity.
Not only for pay equity at work, but at home, in society, and culturally, the ERA would benefit women of color achieving better health and social support. By getting better access to medical care and legal protections against doctor bias and discriminatory insurance, all Americans and all women, but especially women of color, have a more secure path to protect themselves, their families, and communities. Studies in 2018 by the Center of American Progress and Black Women’s Health Imperative demonstrate that Black women face maternal mortality rates three to four times higher than non-Hispanic white women and are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications, with access to health care the leading cause of the disparity. Mass incarceration rates disproportionately affect Black women who are two times more likely to be incarcerated than white women, resulting in higher stress and infant mortality rates for people of color, giving the U.S. the worst record for infant mortality in the developed world. With the ERA, access to medical care and legal help will improve for women of color by providing federal legal remedy. With the worst record for infant mortality in the developed world, not only women and especially women of color, but the U.S. as a whole, has much to benefit with the ERA.
By certifying the Equal Rights Amendment and publishing it as the 28th Amendment, all Americans would benefit from a richer, more equitable country. By refusing the ERA, a small minority of oligarchs benefits in the short-term by exploiting the many, and puts itself at odds with the will of the people, their health and well-being, stifling progress and creating poverty and structural apartheid based on race, gender, and sex, in a land of abundance. Women of color immediately have the most to risk and benefit, but ultimately so does the entire country.
© Dr. Carmen Schaye
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/health-care-system-racial-disparities-maternal-mortality/
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/mass-incarceration-stress-black-infant-mortality/https://www.nationalpartnership.org/our-work/health/reports/black-womens-maternal-health.html)
