When Tracy Simpson, Plymouth's Moderator, recently wrote in her Herald article about ingrained sexism, I mentally nodded my head. I prefer to think that when women show a sexist bias towards other women, it is due to conditioning, but I have to admit to once thinking that priests and ministers had to be male - because they were male and because the Churches said they had to be male. And when my sorority sister told me she was planning to go to Law School, I asked her "Do they allow women in Law School"? But that was then, and this is now, and things have changed, right? Well, not as much as they should have.
The Equal Rights Amendment would be the 28th Amendment to the Constitution and would ban discrimination on the basis of sex and guarantee equality for women under the Constitution. Sort of a no-brainer, but the proposed amendment has been fought over since 1972 when Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment. Sure, it was passed by Congress, but under the Constitution, constitutional amendments aren't valid until they are ratified by three-fourths of the states - that's 38 states. And wouldn't you know it, not even 38 states were willing to ratify ERA until Virginia became the 38th state in 2020. It didn't count though because time had run out - although there was an argument that Congress's imposed deadline to ratify the ERA had not lapsed because the time frame is not included in the amendment's text. Then, on March 17, 2021, a joint resolution was passed by the House which eliminated the deadline for the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. The amendment shall be part of the Constitution whenever ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the states. So the ERA has passed, or has it? Checking with equalrightsamendment.org, I read "Section 3 of the Equal Rights Amendment states: “This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.” January 27, 2022, marks two years since Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the ERA. Based on the legal analysis of the plaintiffs in Virginia v. Ferriero and the constitutional amendment process of Article V that declares an amendment ratified when the final necessary state ratifies, ERA proponents are contending that the Equal Rights Amendment has been part of the Constitution since January 27, 2020, and its requirement for equality of rights under the law without regard to sex becomes operative on January 27, 2022." And others are still arguing that it isn't.
So here's the thing: It has been over 100 years since women were finally allowed to vote. It has been 50 years since Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment. Isn't it about time? Isn't it about time for this country to realize that equal rights for women should not be considered as some outlandish idea?
One of the problems in getting to equality is... women. Remember Phyllis Schlafly? As organizer of the "STOP ERA" campaign, she opposed feminism, gay rights and abortion, and successfully campaigned against ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. STOP, I discovered, was an acronym for "Stop Taking Our Privileges". Schlafly argued that the ERA would take away gender-specific privileges such as "dependent wife" benefits under Social Security, separate restrooms for males and females, and exemption from the draft. She spoke for many dependent women - who still seem to be worked up about sharing restrooms although the issue now is sharing restrooms with trans women. We certainly can't put all the blame on old, white men.
Sometimes, I just don't understand women. Women who would vote for a man who regularly denigrates women and brags about forcing his attentions on them. (They've been geared up for 2024 for years now.) Women who proudly promise to obey their husbands and take a subservient, unequal position in their marriage. (I do a mental eye roll every time I think of a wedding I went to many years ago.)
Churches are one of the places where women are often viewed as less than equal, and that is just fine with most of the women. I have been reading about the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the country, and Beth Moore, "one of the most popular evangelists in the world" according to Kate Bowler. (Bowler wrote about Beth Moore in The preacher's wife : the precarious power of evangelical women celebrities). Bowler went on to say, "Outside the Southern Baptist Convention, who can name another Southern Baptist right now?", but despite that, as a Southern Baptist, Moore, like all SBC women, is not allowed to preach to adult men. That seems to be okay with the majority of Evangelical women, but since the 2016 election, Beth Moore has been consistently speaking out against what Elizabeth Dias and Ruth Graham reported in a recent article in the New York Times as the "Christian nationalism, the 'demonic stronghold' of white supremacy, and 'the sexism & misogyny that is rampant in segments of the SBC'". Now Moore has broken with the Southern Baptists over the denomination's blind support of Donald Trump and their treatment of women. Will other Evangelical women follow? So far, I'm not seeing it.
Isn't it about time for women to support women? Isn't it about time for women to have equal rights? In fact, isn't it about time for everyone to have equal rights?
Attack of the 50 ft. women : how gender equality can save the world! /Mayer, Catherine. 305.42 MAY
Good and mad : the revolutionary power of women's anger /Traister, Rebecca. 305.420973 TRA
Men explain things to me /Solnit, Rebecca. 305.42 SOL
The pink hat /Joyner, Andrew. E JOY
The rights of women : the authoritative ACLU guide to women's rights /Lapidus, Lenora M. 346.7301 LAP
The Columbia documentary history of American women since 1941 /305.4 SIG
The preacher's wife : the precarious power of evangelical women celebrities /Bowler, Kate. 277.3 BOW
Worldwide:
Our bodies their battlefield: What war does to women/ Lamb, Christina. 363.349 LAM
The moment of lift : how empowering women changes the world /Gates, Melinda. 305.42 GAT
The caged virgin : an emancipation proclamation for women and Islam /Hirsi Ali, Ayaan. 297.082 HIR
A call to action : women, religion, violence, and power /Carter, Jimmy. 323.34 CAR
Half the sky : turning oppression into opportunity for women worldwide /Kristof, Nicholas D. 362.83 KRI
A long time coming:
The declaration of the rights of women : the originial manifesto for justice, equality and freedom /Gouges, Olympe de. 305.42 GOU
The sisterhood : the true story of the women who changed the world /Cohen, Marcia. 305.4 COH
Rabble rousers : 20 women who made a difference /Harness, Cheryl. J BC HAR
Susan B. Anthony : fighter for women's rights /Hopkinson, Deborah. J B HOP
Not for ourselves alone : the story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony 305.42 WAR
Speech Entitled “Ain’t I a Woman?” by Sojourner Truth, Delivered at the 1851 Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio
Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that ‘twixt the Negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what’s all this here talking about?
That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man – when I could get it – and bear the lash as well! And ain’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain’t I a woman?
Then they talk about this thing in the head; what’s this they call it? [member of audience whispers, “intellect”] That’s it, honey. What’s that got to do with women’s rights or Negroes’ rights? If my cup won’t hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn’t you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?
Then that little man in black there, he says women can’t have as much rights as men, ‘cause Christ wasn’t a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.
If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it. The men better let them.
Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain’t got nothing more to say.