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Letter
To The
Editor
Facts About
ERA
To the editor:
In the interest of informing readers on the Equal Rights Amendment, a few questions and answers follow concerning issues about which there is often misunderstanding or confusion. Q. What does the ERA say? A. “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any other State on account of sex. Congress shall have the power, by appropriate legislation, to enforce the provisions of this article. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.’’ Q. How and when must ERA be ratified by the states before it is added to the Constitution? A. Three more states, making a total of 38, must ratify the ERA by March 22, 1979, or it will fail. Q. Will the ERA force women to leave home and take a job? A. No. The ERA will mandate recognition of the monetary value of homemakers’ work for the first time, and equalize women’s tangible property rights. Q. Will the ERA help older women? A. Yes. 47 per cent of women over 65 have less than $2,000 in annual income. Under the ERA, fair Social Security, pension rights and job opportunities will increasingly help older women avoid destitution. Q. Will the ERA force men and women to become alike—to become unisex? A. No. The ERA will not force men and women to become identical; it will only guarantee equal protection of the law. Q. Will the ERA establish quotas for men and women in public institutions of higher learning? A. No. The ERA will not establish quotas for men and women in public colleges and universities, but will require for the first time that uniform admittance standards be applied to all persons. For example, 21,000 women were turned down for college entrance in the State of Virginia in 1964; during the same year, not one application of a male student was rejected (Report of the Virginia Commission for the Study of Educational Facilities in the State of Virginia, 1964). This has improved somewhat, but still women are consistently required to have higher grades for college entrance than men in some public colleges, universities and, especially, professional schools. This will change with the ERA. Q. Why hasn’t the ERA been ratified yet? A. A minority of opponents in a minority of states oppose it. In November, 1976, a Harris poll showed support for the ERA to be 65 per cent to 27 per cent in the nation.
Mary Beth Myers Martin
Ad Hoc Committee
for the ERA-'
91.1%