10-15-2023 Women to Watch - Flipbook - Page 42
‘IT’S BASIC
FAIRNESS’
Sen. Ben Cardin has spent decades advocating for
the Equal Rights Amendment
By Jeff Barker
I
t’s hard to fathom, says U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin,
why the Equal Rights Amendment — which
Congress sent to the states for ratification
when he was a young state delegate 51 years
ago — is still not part of the Constitution.
“It’s basic fairness,” the Maryland Democrat said
of the ERA, which was overwhelmingly passed by
the Senate in 1972, beginning a winding path that
supporters believe will eventually make it the 28th
Amendment.
Cardin was 28 then. He turned 80 on Oct. 5, but a
few things have not changed. He remains passionate about the ERA and still believes it will be ratified, even if he sometimes appears incredulous that
it has taken this long.
The ERA would enshrine women’s equality in
the Constitution by mandating 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.”
With Cardin as a supporter, Maryland was
among the first states to ratify the ERA in 1972.
Thirty-five states — three fewer than needed —
approved it by the deadline, which was originally
1979 but extended to 1982.
“I knew we had a long way to go in 1979,” Cardin
42 | 2023 | WOMEN TO WATCH
said. “But I am proud of the progress we’ve made.”
He noted that women constitute 28% of the
members of the House and Senate. While far less
than their percentage of the general population (a
little more than 50%), that is a record high.
Three additional states — Nevada, Illinois and
Virginia — ratified the ERA in recent years, but
opponents argue that it is meaningless since the
original deadline was not met. Two years after
Virginia ratified the ERA in 2020, Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares said his state would halt
legal efforts to get the ratification recognized by the
federal government.
Many ERA backers say it would bolster abortion rights, expand protections against discrimination in employment, health care and other fields,
and broaden federal authority to legislate against
gender-based violence.
The measure has encountered resistance from
Republicans who argue that it contains vague
language and isn’t needed because the 14th Amendment protects women by ensuring equal protection
under the law.
If the issue has appeared to recede in the public
consciousness over the years, that may be because
“most Americans think it’s in our Constitution”