It has been nearly a century since the first version of the Equal Rights Amendment, known as Lucretia Mott Amendment, was introduced in Congress, and almost 50 years since it finally was passed by both houses in 1972. Many of us marched in support of the ERA and our hope was renewed in recent years when groups like Equal Means Equal joined the fight to get it ratified by the remaining three states. Nevada ratified in 2017, Illinois in 2018, and Virginia in 2020, finally giving us the 38 states needed to ratify a constitutional amendment.
Then Trump’s Attorney General William Barr sent a memo to the National Archivist, David Ferriero, telling him not to publish the ERA to the Constitution, and though Joe Biden and Kamala Harris both claimed they support the Equal Rights Amendment and many women voted for them expecting them to act, the Biden Administration has made no effort to revoke this egregious abuse of authority or direct the Archivist to publish the ERA. Biden should have done this his first day in office and today he has now been in office for 3 months and he still has not done so.
Therefore, we are asking that you help us exert pressure on Biden and Harris for the next 30 days to honor a century of struggle for equal rights for women by publishing the ERA. Here is what we’re asking you to do:
1) Send a postcard every day for a month to the White House demanding that they REMOVE the Barr memo and direct the archivist to publish the ERA (stamped postcards=$12 for 30. One trip to the Post Office; 29 trips to one’s mailbox) with the message: WOMEN HAVE WAITED NEARLY A CENTURY FOR OUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS. REMOVE THE BARR MEMO AND DIRECT THE ARCHIVIST TO PUBLISH THE ERA NOW!! The address is: President Joe Biden/Vice-President Kamala Harris, The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. 20500.2) Call 2-3 female Senators per day (18 Democrats; 2 moderate Republicans), 3 times (10 days to go through the list at 2 per day) and urge them to demand that the White House publish the ERA. Here is a list of women senators and their phone numbers to call. They are all Democrats who should definitely support the ERA except for two moderate Republicans (Susan Collins from Maine and Lisa Murkowski from Alaska) whom we believe are in favor of equal rights for women. We have included their states as well–if you are a constituent of theirs, please emphasize that; let them know you are contacting them because as women you hope they care about women’s rights as much as you do and let them know that you are calling on behalf of all the women in your state and the U.S.
3) Join us on social media–especially Twitter @FeministStruggl (follow us and retweet)–as we can directly tweet to @WhiteHouse, @POTUS, @KamalaHarris @VP @JoeBiden to call out the Biden Administration on their neglect of women’s constitutional rights and obstructionism and demand that they remove the Barr memo and direct the Archivist to publish the #ERANow!!
4) Go to May Day for the ERA at Equal Means Equal and sign up for the livestream to hear Wendy Murphy’s legal argument on May 5th.
Thank you very much for doing all you can for women to finally achieve equality under the law. We are tired of being second-class citizens and demand our full constitutional rights!!