- When do you think the United States
ratified equal rights for women?
- Was it 1970s?
- 42, 44.
- 44.
- Early 70s.
- I believe somewhere in the 1920s.
- Do you think women are
equal in the United States?
- No I do not.
- I do, yes.
I know a lot of women who feel equal.
- No.
- No.
- No it's not equal, it's not close.
- What amendment states
that equality of rights
under the law shall not
be denied or abridged
by the United States or by
any state on account of sex?
- I believe that's the fourth amendment.
- 16th amendment.
- I would say that's the 25th amendment.
- What if I told you that we never passed
that amendment I read?
- Really?
- No, it can't.
- I'm not surprised.
- Do you think we should have
that in the constitution?
- Well, I think it's required.
- I think it's very important.
- I think you guys are
gonna gain something
and I think you're gonna lose something.
I think it's like a devil's dagger.
- So basically there's no hope.
It's a lose, lose situation
and we're all gonna become
handmaids eventually?
- Basically.
- So all of this talk about
ratifying equal rights,
pretty much narrows down to one thing,
the Equal Rights Amendment.
It's an amendment to the constitution
that was first introduced
in 1923 by Alice Paul
shortly after women got the right to vote.
It called for women's
equality stating that
a quality of rights under the law
shall not be denied or
abridged by the United States
or by any state on account of sex.
It failed at the time,
but was introduced again
and then kept getting
introduced into Congress.
Now it's been introduced in every single
congressional session since 1982.
I mean, that's crazy.
The ERA is like you're really
needy ex-boyfriend, Steve,
who texts you every six months just to see
how your mom is doing.
We know that's not what it's about Steve.
Maybe the ERA, like Steve,
should just accept its failure
and move on, I mean,
women are already equal
according to that guy.
So maybe this is just a bunch of ladies
who've watched a little
too much Handmaid's Tale
and have nothing better to do.
To set this straight, I decided to talk
to some professionals to see
why the ERA is so important.
So women are already equal?
- Well, that's a complex question.
Are women equal in the eyes of the law?
- [Together] No.
- Are women equal inherently?
Yes.
Our research would show that most people
think that we're already
guaranteed equal rights,
actually 80% of people
and they're made aware
that we're not and asked if
they would support an amendment
to guarantee those rights,
actually 94% of people
say they would.
So despite all of the discord that we have
in America right now,
people of every demographic,
appear that they would support this.
The problem is, is that people don't know
that we're not guaranteed these rights
and most people under 35 at least
have never heard of the
Equal Rights Amendment.
- What are some examples
of how women aren't equal?
- Well there's the legal things like pay
and the level of legal scrutiny
when they go into courts
with the gender discrimination case.
- Workplace discrimination,
pregnancy discrimination in the workplace,
domestic abuse and violence,
where women just don't have
the same legal recourse.
- I couldn't help but notice
that we were all white women.
Is this like the early feminism of 1923?
An amendment that only
works for white women
while ignoring women of color.
I wanted to find someone who
would be able to answer this.
So I got in touch with Carol Jenkins,
an Emmy winning journalist
and the founding president
of the Women's Media Center.
- [Woman] Of course I'm a woman of color
so I know many women of
color who feel that the ERA
has nothing to do with them.
But I come from a feminist
family and one of the reasons
that I am there and I take
my granddaughter with me
lobbying on Capital
Hill for the bills that
are before Congress is that women of color
need it more desperately than
anyone else quite frankly
to make sure that those
numbers and pay differences
and access to education and employment.
You know, women are still
discriminated against
because of the color of their skin.
So I would say that this ERA
and what we're fighting
for now includes everyone.
It includes people of different faiths
and disability, of sexual orientation.
We are working for the inclusion
of everyone in America.
- So it turns out that
women aren't totally free
under U.S. law and that women of color
are affected by this the most.
In fact, there's a ton of
bills introduced every year
that attempt to limit the
freedom that women have
over their bodies.
In 2017, the house passed
the American Health Care Act,
which ended Medicaid funding
for Planned Parenthood.
In 2011 there were 92 provisions
across 24 states that aimed
to restrict abortion access.
In July of 2016 the house
appropriations committee
passed a bill that eliminated funding
for family planning services,
which included things
like breast exams, birth
control and PAP tests.
I could go on.
The government continuously introduces
and passes legislation that attempts
to limit women's bodily autonomy,
but why can't they pass the ERA?
This was a question for a lawmaker.
So I decided to reach out to Ted Lieu,
a California congressman
who supports the ERA
and who also has fairly good tweets.
- I represent the 33rd
Congressional District
in southern California.
I'm a huge supporter of
the Equal Rights Amendment.
I'm very honored to write an Op-Ed
with Patricia Arquette on
the Equal Rights Amendment.
I do everything I can to make sure that
we have equal pay for equal work.
- Most people I've talked to
agree that women are equal
or women should be equal and in your Op-Ed
you said that Americans overwhelmingly
support ratification of the ERA
and not many people even
realize that the ERA
hasn't been ratified.
If there's so much support for it,
why can't it pass in Congress?
- That's a great question.
My first thought is that
they're not rational,
but there are some people
who will not vote for it
because they think it's gonna
result in too many lawsuits,
so that's sort of the complaint
that I hear from folks
who don't wanna vote for it.
So my response to that is that
it's a fear of too much justice.
If there are pay gaps and people are suing
to correct that problem, then to me
that is something we want to encourage.
500 billion dollars a
year is how much economist
estimate that women lose in economy
because of this disparity in the wage gap.
- So would you say that
women's rights, women's issues
are economic issues?
- Absolutely and it is
harming women economically.
It is flat out unfair and it's time
that Congress passes the ERA.
- Why is gender equality a partisan issue?
- So what happens is the
Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan,
has not agreed to put it up for a vote
and basically the party controlling
the House of Representatives
gets to control their agenda
and this is simply not on their agenda
of the current party
controlling the house.
- After speaking with Ted Lieu,
I wanted to talk to somebody
who opposed the ERA.
I contacted Congressman Duncan Hunter,
Nevada State Senator Becky Harris,
Nevada Assemblywoman Robin Titus
and Maine's State Senator Lisa Keim.
None of them agreed to speak with me,
but I did get in touch with Orlean Koehle.
She's the president of Eagle
Forum's California branch.
It's an organization
founded by Phyllis Schlafly,
arguably the most infamous
opposer of the ERA
in its history.
For Orlean it seemed like
the biggest issues of the ERA
were abortion rights it would grant
and that she in herself already felt equal
and that women didn't need more rights.
I looked more into Schlafly's work
and I found a 2007 Op-Ed
she wrote for the LA Times.
It stated that while
claiming to benefit women
the ERA would actually have taken away
some of women's rights.
The amendment would require women
to be drafted into military combat,
abolish the presumption that the husband
should support his wife and take away
Social Security benefits
for wives and widows.
It would also give federal courts
and the federal government
enormous new powers
to reinterpret every law
that makes a distinction
based on gender, such as
those related to marriage,
divorce and alimony.
How would a supporter of the
ERA respond to this criticism
that it might actually
hurt women and families?
I decided to call back
Carol Jenkins to find out.
- [Woman] You know, Phyllis
Schlafly had a great deal
of success whipping out
this anti-woman spirit,
but she herself lead a
very independent free
successful life.
I think a lot of the
arguments are (mumbles) now.
Women feel that they can
participate in the military
and they do.
I think to put any kind of
limit on the capability of women
is to make every girl in America
feel less than, diminished.
I think that as women and as men
we need to feel we can support ourselves.
We don't have to rely
on our husband's salary
if given the opportunity
to get an education
and to participate fully.
- What can the average person
do who just learned about this
and wants to ratify equal rights?
- So in addition to calling
their members of Congress
as well as U.S. senators,
they can write letters
to their editor, they can do
social media, that's free.
They can try to run Op-Ed for newspapers.
Just get their voices heard
and to amplify their voices
and then to join different organizations
that support the Equal Rights Amendment.
- It's just really an awareness issue
and women can't do this alone.
This is a fight for everyone.
- This is not just a woman issue,
this is an American issue.
- If passing the ERA is something
that seems important to you,
get in touch with your legislators
and urge them to prioritize this bill.
Tweet, Instagram, whatever,
and help spread awareness that women
are still not granted equal
rights under U.S. law.
And if you don't support
ratifying the ERA,
thank you for watching this long.
I mean sincerely, I'm impressed
that you stayed and watched this long.
I mean, there are so many
other things you could watch
and so many other things
that like are in line
with your own opinion.
So it's cool that you
watched this whole thing
and maybe it didn't change
your mind and that's fine.
I mean, you're you.
You do you.
Can we get that light back on?
Ted?
(upbeat music)
