Passing the E.R.A.

IN THE EARLY NINETEEN SEVENTIES much was made about the ERA (Equal rights amendment, not earned run average). It was a more progressive era, during which it was considered important by many to enshrine in the law gender equality by adding an amendment to the national constitution stating that discrimination based on gender is illegal. After much ado, and after thirty five states had approved the twenty eighth amendment, it died, because, according to the constitution, thirty eight states are required to ratify a new amendment. Congress in 1972 had expressed a willingness to pass it, which is also required. One can hardly imagine today's conservative congress passing it; these are less progressive, less expansive, less tolerant times. My father, who at the time was a retired tort lawyer, issued his opinion that the amendment was unnecessary, because gender equality was already inherent in the body of the existing constitution. I couldn't find it then, and cannot now. The equal protection clause, perhaps? Amendments thirteen through fifteen? Nowhere, not explicitly, is gender equality to be found in the constitution, unless one embraces a living, interpretative constitution, which my father certainly did not, he being a conservative. And even if an equal gender amendment turned out to be constitutionally redundant, what of it? What harm could it do? Better safe than sorry, eh? I always suspected, and still do, that daddy was opposed to legal gender equality because he was opposed to gender equality everywhere, that he considered women to be chattel property of their husbands, which in fact they were, legally, until the late nineteen seventies. We all use the great document to justify our own agendas. Now, two more states have ratified the ERA, Nevada and Maryland, bringing the total to thirty seven, one short of the necessary number. Could it be that we are on the verge of entering a more civilized modernity? Probably not; remember our conservative congress, which likes the constitution just the way it is, believing it to be perfect, even God given. And besides, most of our elected legislators most likely would, in a pinch, fall back on my father's lame excuse; that we do not need gender equality, because it is already there...somewhere.