Posted on 03/27/2007 12:24:01 PM PDT by seanmerc
Liberal Democrats in the Senate and House plan to resume "the fight for women's equality" on Tuesday, when they reintroduce the Women's Equality Amendment.
Sens. Ted Kennedy (Mass.) and Barbara Boxer (Calif.) and Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Jerrold Nadler, both of New York, plan to join Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority, in making the Tuesday afternoon announcement.
This time around, supporters say they hope "women will finally achieve official equality in America." But a conservative group said women's rights activists are "fighting old battles."
First proposed in 1923, the ERA states: "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex."
The amendment passed both houses of Congress in 1972 but it fell three states short of ratification and lapsed ten years later.
The proposed amendment would affect issues ranging from hiring and wages to restrictions on women serving in military combat units.
This year, organizers say the ERA has more than 190 original co-sponsors.
"It's been a long, hard fight for women's equality," Maloney said Monday at the Women's Equality Summit hosted by the National Council of Women's Organizations in Washington, D.C.
"We've achieved a lot for women -- even in my lifetime," she said. "But we have not done enough.
"There is still a great deal of discrimination out there," Maloney argued, citing income disparity between men and women, gender-based "discriminatory clubs" and "gender-based hate crimes."
"Discrimination is real; it's out there," Maloney said. "They are constantly trying to roll [women's rights] back.
"It's never going to go away until we pass the women's equality amendment," she said.
Maloney said the House Judicial Committee's subcommittee on the Constitution, civil rights and civil liberties will hold hearings on the ERA.
Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, raised doubts about the activists' agenda.
"These are topics that are 30 years old," she told Cybercast News Service. "A lot has changed in those 30 years, and it seems that agitating is a way for them to justify their existence.
"They claim to be speaking on behalf of all women, but they obviously don't," Wright said. "In this country, women have it awfully good, and that's why so many women from other countries are trying to get here, to the U.S.
"If they were truly concerned about women's equality, what they would look at is the horrific way women are treated in other countries around the world," she said.
"There's a very serious problem of gender imbalance around the world," Wright argued, pointing to "sex-selection abortion," inheritance rights, property rights, and "literally being treated as second-class or sub-class human beings."
"If these women truly cared about inequality, they would be focusing their attention on these horrific injustices happening in other countries," she said.
The ERA is a great legislative backdoor to make same sex marriage legal across the fruited plain.
Muslims are allowed to own and beat their wives like cattle and the Donks go in for window dressing.
The heart of the matter.
discriminatory clubs?........My wife goes to a women's only spa. She tells me some women swim nude in the pool and hot tubs. I can't wait to join!.........
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
This is ridiculous. But not unexpected seeing how the dems have "governed" since they came back into power.
ERA and "sexuality equality laws" are advocated by those women who are so insecure they need the governement to tell them they are equal to men. They are the weaker of their sex.
She is Femi-Nazi number one, an evil pro-abortion advocate.
Hey hey hey!
We're living the 60s all over again!
There's a war to protest, a republican in office,
free love (for homos) and illegal aliens are the new blacks.
Now the ERA is back in play!
Too bad that modern music sucks so bad, otherwise we could all party like its 1969!
The Democrat Party: Stuck in the 1970's
Time to get out my old WIN button. "Whip Inflation Now"
Next thing you know they'll be fighting for equal rights for terrorists. Oh, no, guess not. They've already assumed "more equal than non-terrorists rights" for them.
They always have ulterior motives. Just once I'd like to see them debate a useful issue. One that we could all discuss like adults. One that they didn't have to wait until they won the majority to take on. EVERYTHING THEY DO IS SUSPECT. And with good reason.
When was the last time you saw a TV commercial featuring both a man and a woman, where the man wasn't shown to be a doofus?
We should have repealed the 19th amendment when we had the chance.
Can't even teach them to leave the toilet seats up, and ya want to give them equal rights? gimme a break. (/s)
Interesting how they kept that secret close to their vest during the campaign.
"Gender-based discriminatory clubs". Er..Freedom of Association anyone?
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