After Suffrage Comes Equal Rights? ERA as the Next Logical Step

in "100 Years of the Nineteenth Amendment: An Appraisal of Women’s Political Activism" (Holly McCammon & Lee Ann Banaszak eds.) (Oxford Univ. Press 2018)

48 Pages Posted: 14 Oct 2015 Last revised: 17 Jun 2018

See all articles by Tracy A. Thomas

Tracy A. Thomas

University of Akron School of Law

Tracey Jean Boisseau

University of Akron

Date Written: October 13, 2015

Abstract

Almost a full century in the making, the campaign for an ERA far exceeded in longevity the campaign for woman suffrage, however much a “logical next step” women's equality seemed to some following the spectacular achievement of the Nineteenth Amendment. The history of the amendment reveals how resistant to the idea of equality between men and women a political system -- even one that includes women as voters -- can be. In this chapter, we re-examine the route taken by the ERA through its many permutations in the century since the passage of woman suffrage. Proposed by Alice Paul in 1923 and immediately opposed by social feminists advocating protective labor laws, the ERA wound itself in and out of feminist, conservative, and public favor before its final defeat in 1982, three states short of adoption. Woven into the Supreme Court's analysis of Lochner and substantive due process, and the later evolution of equal protection law, women's equality -- or difference -- has been the foundation of much of the development of modern constitutional doctrine.

Keywords: women, equality, equal rights amendment, equal protection, labor laws

JEL Classification: K1

Suggested Citation

Thomas, Tracy A. and Boisseau, Tracey Jean, After Suffrage Comes Equal Rights? ERA as the Next Logical Step (October 13, 2015). in "100 Years of the Nineteenth Amendment: An Appraisal of Women’s Political Activism" (Holly McCammon & Lee Ann Banaszak eds.) (Oxford Univ. Press 2018) , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2673610

Tracy A. Thomas (Contact Author)

University of Akron School of Law ( email )

150 University Ave.
Akron, OH 44325-2901
United States
330-972-6617 (Phone)
330-258-2343 (Fax)

Tracey Jean Boisseau

University of Akron ( email )

259 S. Broadway
Akron, OH 44325
United States

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