Housewives 1, Feminists 0: divided over women's rights, the two sides waged a battle over the Equal Rights Amendment. (times past).

On June 30, 1982, Phyllis Schlafly threw one very big party. She and more than 1,400 other conservatives in Washington popped corks, sang songs, and danced on the grave of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).

The clock had run out on having sexual equality spelled out in the U.S. Constitution. Schlafly, a conservative activist, wanted the world to know, saying the ERA "is dead now and forever in this century.... We won, and it really wasn't even close."

Her boast was only half right. The ERA actually failed by a close margin, just 3 states short of the 38 needed for ratification. It would have been the 27th Amendment to the Constitution, ensuring that "we the people" included both men and women in all legal matters.

Friend and foe alike credited Schlafly with stopping the ERA. Nobody could dispute that she had outdueled the feminists in their 10-year battle. Though the amendment failed, the high-profile fight led to changes seen today.

THE LIBERATION MOVEMENT 

The ERA was first introduced to Congress in 1923, three years after women earned the right to vote. It lay dormant until the women's liberation movement was sparked in 1963 by Betty Friedan's book The Feminine Mystique. Friedan argued that for too long women had been confined to one ambition in life: being the perfect wife and mother.

They learned that truly feminine women do not want careers, higher education, political rights.... All they had to do was devote their lives from earliest girlhood to finding a husband and bearing children.

Friedan and other feminists wanted to expand those ambitions, to be on equal footing with men. To do so, they launched the National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1966 and demanded legal equality. They sought to prevent discrimination based on gender in areas including college admissions, sports participation, sexual harassment, and personal salaries (see "Dollar Divide," page 28). Their main tool was the ERA, which read:

Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.

Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.

The ERA faced rigorous requirements before it could become law. Under the Constitution, any amendment must pass both houses of Congress by a two-thirds vote. It must then be ratified by three fourths of the state legislatures. Even so, the ERA seemed poised to clear every hurdle, By March 1972, it had overwhelmingly passed both the House of Representatives and the Senate, with bipartisan support. Within a year, 30 state legislatures had ratified it--en route to the 38 needed. By March 1973, ERA supporters were predicting total victory within two months.

But then, the ball stopped rolling. In 1974, only three states ratified. In 1975, only one state ratified, while 16 rejected it. In 1977, Indiana became the 35th (and as it would turn out, the last) state to ratify the ERA. Polls showed that more than 60 percent of Americans supported the ERA, but NOW could not translate that support into votes in state legislatures resistant to the amendment.

STANDING IN THE WAY

What happened? Phyllis Schlafly happened. A self-described "Illinois housewife," she was a political activist who established the National Committee to Stop ERA. She and other conservatives said that women and men are not equal in all things. They argued that most men are physically stronger and therefore better suited for certain jobs, such as military combat, while women bear children and are better nurturers.

Schlafly said that the ERA would paper over these and other traditionally held differences. Her supporters tended to be stay-at-home moms, and even women who worked outside the home but saw themselves primarily as wives and mothers.

Most feminist's had no problem with traditional families. They just wanted opportunities for women outside the home. But many radical feminists sneered at housewives, and that played into Schlafly's hands. As she said :in one 1977 speech:

They're going to drive the homemaker cut of the home. ... They want to relieve mothers of the menial task of taking care of their babies. They want to put them in the coal mines and have them digging ditches.

Schlafly also declared that the ERA would create unisex public bathrooms, force 18-year-old girls to be drafted as combat soldiers, and allow gay people to marry. These accusations were highly debatable, but they made her point.

The ERA meant change--perhaps radical, unpredictable change. Since the 1960s, the country had experienced war and upheavals over race and sexual attitudes. People were tired of change. As Schlafly's views gained ground, some state lawmakers saw the safest course was to let the ERA die.

Feminists tried to counterattack. They began an economic boycott of states that refused to ratify. They also brought in celebrities such as TV star Carol Burnett to lobby state legislatures. In desperation, some of them went on hunger strikes. One even threw a pie in Schlafly's face.

DEAD AT THE DEADLINE

It wasn't enough. By 1978, it became clear that the ERA would not be ratified by its original deadline of March 22, 1979. So the Democratic majority in Congress gave the ERA a three-year extension, to July 1, 1982. That move backfired. Anti-ERA forces cried foul, and five states that had previously approved the amendment tried to nullify their ratification. Then in 1980, the Republican Party yanked its endorsement of the ERA after 40 years of support.

By the time of Schlafly's big 1982 bash, the ERA was long dead. Feminists have tried to revive it many times since, but with no success (see "Is Feminism Still Relevant?" page 29). Even so, they insist that the battle was not a failure. Nineteen states now have their own ERAs or equal rights guarantees, and other federal laws have helped curtail sexual bias. The 1972 legislation Title IX, for instance, prohibits sexual discrimination in sports or academic programs at schools receiving federal money. Courts have viewed the 14th Amendment, guaranteeing "equal protection of the laws," as similar to an equal rights amendment.

Outside the home, more women than ever are in powerful roles, from corporations to Congress. As Olympia Snowe, one of Maine's two female U.S. Senators, has said:

We owe most of the advances of the 1970s to the fight over the ERA. The debate raised the decibel level and public consciousness on women's issues.

[GRAPHIC OMITTED]

FIGHTING FOR EQUALITY

For more than 200 years, American women have struggled for equal rights. Some milestones in the movement:

1789

Despite Abigail Adams's plea to her husband to include women's rights in the U.S. Constitution, John Adams and his fellow drafters leave women out.

1848

The first women's rights convention--organized by social reformers Susan B. Anthony (pictured on the dollar coin), Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Lucretia Mott--is held in Seneca Falls, N.Y. They call for equal opportunity and rights for women, marking the beginning of the right-to-vote campaign.

1914

Margaret Sanger, an advocate of sexual reform, publishes the Birth Control Review, expanding the concept of women's rights to include the right to control their own bodies. Similar illegal writings earn her indictments for indecency.

1920

The 19th Amendment, stating the right to vote can't be denied "on account of sex," is adopted.

1942

Eight million women take factory jobs to fill positions left by men fighting in World War II. After the war, women are urged to leave the workforce to make room for returning servicemen.

1963

Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, a critique of American women's second-class status, inspires the modern women's movement.

1973

The U.S. Supreme Court, ruling in Roe v. Wade, legalizes abortion, advancing women's control over their bodies.

1981

Sandra Day O'Connor (pictured) becomes the first female Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.

1991

Anita Hill complains of sexual harassment by Clarence Thomas, a nominee for Supreme Court justice. Thomas gets the job, but women's rights in the workplace gain national attention.

2000

Election 2000 brings the number of women in top political offices to a record high: 13 Senators (including Hillary Rodham Clinton, pictured), 59 Representatives, and 5 Governs.

lesson plan 4 * HISTORY/TIMES PAST * pages 26-28

Housewives 1, Feminists 0

FOCUS: Fear of Radical Change Helps Kill the Equal Rights Amendment

TEACHING OBJECTIVES

To help students understand the concerns about possible changed relations between men and women that finally halted the 10-year drive to ratify an Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Discussion Questions:

* Would you have voted for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) if you had been a state legislator in the 1970s?

* Why do you believe so many women opposed passage of the ERA?

* What do you believe accounts for the fact that most women have still not achieved pay equity with men?

CLASSROOM STRATEGIES

Class Vote: Ask students to vote. How many would vote to pass the ERA today? How many would oppose it?

Discussion: Have one student read aloud Section 1 of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment. Next, open the class to discussion. Would the language in Section 1 of the amendment require unisex public bathrooms? Is it likely that the amendment would "relieve mothers of the menial task of taking care of their babies," as Phyllis Schlafly argued?

Now have students tackle another hot gender issue--compulsory combat service. Students can engage in a formal debate or simply discuss the pros and cons of requiring qualified women to serve in combat during wartime.

Next, look at the legislative hurdles facing any amendment. Ask why the Founders made it so difficult to amend the Constitution. Is the two-thirds vote in Congress and ratification by three fourths of the states a good idea or a bad idea? Students should suggest pros and cons of this process.

Poll: Assign students to conduct a public-opinion poll among their families and neighbors. Have them ask: Have women achieved equality with men, in the working world, in politics, in social life? For respondents who answer no, ask a second question: Are new laws needed to help women win equality?

Web Watch: The National Council of Women's Organizations provides additional information on the amendment at www.equalrightsamendment.org.