Alice Paul The Equal Rights Amendment

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Alice Paul, the author of the Equal Rights Amendment, argued that a guarantee of freedom from discrimination based on sex required an amendment that would ensure equal application of the Constitution to all United States citizens. Paul began her quest to ensure that freedom from discrimination in 1923 when she introduced the “Lucretia Mott Amendment” at the 78th anniversary of the 1848 Woman’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls. The original draft of the amendment stated that, "men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction." At first, members of the National Woman’s Party and prominent female figures such as Amelia Earhart supported the amendment. However, members of different labor organizations and those who had worked for protective labor laws were against the ERA because they thought it would erase the progress they had made. Despite opposition, both the Republican and Democratic Parties added support of the Equal Rights Amendment to their party platforms demonstrating increased support…show more content…
Their main arguments against the amendment were that it would allow women to be sent into combat, would allow for same-sex marriages, and would lead to abortion rights being upheld. Other opponents of the amendment argued that the ERA was a wrongful encroachment on state’s rights by the federal government. As the 1979 deadline for ratification approached and it looked like the amendment would not get the necessary 38 states, proponents of the bill tried to lobby Congress to eliminate the time limit for ratification. This led Congress to extend the deadline until June 30, 1982. However, despite massive lobbying efforts and feminist support, the ERA failed to get the last three states it needed for ratification for the deadline and thus failed to become
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