10-15-2023 Women to Watch - Flipbook - Page 46
Sen. Ben Cardin is joined by members of Congress including Rep. Ayanna Pressley, a Democrat from Massachusetts, left, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat
from Connecticut, right, as he calls to remove the deadline for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, during a news conference at the Capitol in April. J. SCOTT
APPLEWHITE/AP
from “yes” to “no” in a procedural maneuver to allow Democrats to bring up the resolution at a later date.
Before the vote, about a dozen U.S. House supporters of
the amendment — led by Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts — marched across the Capitol to the
Senate chamber loudly chanting, “ERA! Now!”
Two of the chamber’s 49 Republicans, Alaska’s Lisa
Murkowski and Maine’s Susan Collins, supported the
measure.
Afterward, Cardin appeared outside the Capitol at an
upbeat news conference with Schumer, Pressley and other
ERA supporters, including actor and activist Alyssa Milano.
“There is no deadline on equality,” Cardin said.
The ERA was first proposed in 1923 by women’s suffrage
movement leaders.
Zakiya Thomas, president and CEO of the ERA Coalition,
said her organization emphasizes educating people that the
ERA has not been ratified, and that the “patchwork of laws
we have to protect against discrimination” is not enough.
“We’re 100 years into the process of the Equal Rights
Amendment,” Thomas said. “And in our life span, that’s
a long thing, but in the life span of moving progress and
moving a nation, I think it’s a short window and I’m very
excited about the kind of energy we’re seeing around this.”
46 | 2023 | WOMEN TO WATCH
Though the Equal Rights Amendment was not made valid
by the U.S. Senate until 1972, the National Women’s Political
Party, an organization that fought for women’s suffrage,
brought the amendment to light in 1923. Pictured: Margaret
Hinchey, Mrs. Murray, Josephine Casey, Marie V. Siegelpalton,
and Myrtle Cain after leaving a petition with President Calvin
Coolidge asking for immediate passage on Jan. 18, 1926, in
Washington, D.C. GETTY ARCHIVE