My Mind is Boggled. Is yours?

My last blog entry featured this picture of Phyllis Shlafley.

Most of you reading this have little or no idea what the ERA is. ERA (in this context) is the Equal Rights Amendment. While the post-Civil War Amendments to the constitution guaranteed equal rights under the law for all Americans regardless of race, there is nothing in the constitution making such a guarantee based on gender. I.e., under a strict reading of the US Constitution, there is no guarantee of equal protection of the laws and equal treatment based on gender. As a result, a group of women, now often referred to as "feminists," banded together to support the Equal Rights Amendment. While the protections would go in both directions, since men in America have typically held most of the power and authority, this proposed amendment was seen as primarily a new protection of women against gender discrimination.

Which begs the questions: Why would any American woman in her right mind want to STOP the Equal Rights Amendment (which failed to be adopted BTW) as Ms. Schlafly is demonstrating in this photo? Is the idea that women should be men's equals that offensive or revolutionary? Apparently, to Ms. Schlafley and the majority of Americans in the 1970s and early 1980s, it was. (It passed both the House and the Senate, but failed to get enough states to ratify it before the 1982 deadline.)

Since the failure of the ERA, numerous federal laws have been passed (enforced broadly under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution, primarily) to prohibit gender discrimination in many areas. But it still makes me feel a little like a second class citizen that a majority of Americans think gender equality is not something we should guaranty with the Constitution. Why the hell not?

Remember my blog "Why is this OK?" Well, let me ask it again: Why is this OK?

To answer my own question: It's not OK. It's just that no one cares enough to change it. And that is a sad commentary on my gender. We may have come a long way, baby, but we have miles and miles and miles to go. And in heels, no less.