The Equal Rights Amendment: The Lucretia Mott Amendment

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The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), once known as the Lucretia Mott Amendment, was supposed to guarantee equal rights between men and women (The Learning Network). The ERA covered many issues that women faced during its time. Abortion rights were included so that women could choose whether or not they would have a child. The ERA included women in the military drafts as one of their topics to make sure that men and women both had the same obligations.When the Constitution was first being formed, it was stated that “All men are created equal”, but they forgot one vital piece of America —women (“Equal Rights Amendment”). This initial mistake made women feel like they did not have a place in the Constitution for hundreds of years. The ERA ensured…show more content…
Ginsburg often spoke about the ERA and how she believed that women deserve a spot in the Constitution. Moreover, she founded the American Civil Liberties Union Women’s Rights Project in the 1970’s (Case). Ginsburg often spoke about her family, stating that “ I would like my granddaughters, when they pick up the Constitution, to see that notion – that women and men are persons of equal stature – I’d like them to see that is a basic principle of our society”(Schwab). Not only did she speak about wanting her family to have security in the Constitution, she also stated that “If I could choose an amendment to add to the Constitution, it would be the Equal Rights Amendment”(Schwab). While the ERA gained a tremendous amount of support, it did not succeed, and was never…show more content…
An example of this is the Nineteenth Amendment. This amendment was long awaited for by nearly all of the women in the United States. The right to vote was a very polemical issue back when it was proposed in 1878 (“Topics in Chronicling”). A very important part of this amendment’s success was the National Women’s Party. The founder of this party was Alice Paul, a very important person to both the Nineteenth Amendment and the ERA (“Alice Paul”). This addition to the Constitution took forty two years to pass from the date of its proposal (“Topics in Chronicling”). The ERA had much less time than the Nineteenth Amendment had to be ratified. Since they both had to do with similar topics, it is clear that the limited time frame given to the ERA was never going to be enough time to get the amendment

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