THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT[ldots]76 YEARS AND COUNTING! USA - Statistical Data Included

WIN News, Spring, 2000

ERA SUMMIT, P.O. Box 113, Chatham, NEW JERSEY 07928

e-mail: era@equal rights amendment.org; Web site: www.equalrightsamendment.org

"Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.

Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.

The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), written by Alice Paul in 1923, was approved by Congress and sent to the states in 1972 with a seven-year ratification deadline. An extended deadline of June 30, 1982, passed with only 35 of the necessary 38 state approvals. The ERA has been reintroduced in every session of Congress since that time (without a ratification deadline since 1997). Chief sponsors are Senator Edward Kennedy and Representative Carolyn Maloney (H.J. Res.4l in the current House). These bills would require passage by a 2/3 vote in each house and ratification by 38 states[ldots]

The 15 states which have not ratified the ERA are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah and Virginia. Since 1995, ratification bills have been introduced in Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and Virginia. In Missouri, a ratification bill was voted out of a House committee in January and awaits a floor vote; a companion bill is in committee in the Senate."

PRESIDENT CLINTON URGES U.S. CONGRESS TO CLOSE THE WAGE GAP

THE NEW YORK TIMES, Jan. 25, 2000

"President Clinton appealed to members of Congress to 'do the right thing' by closing the wage gap between working women and men. He suggested they start by approving his $27 million plan to bolster enforcement of equal-pay laws. 'I made this request last year, and Congress failed to pass it,' Mr. Clinton said at a White House event.

The president coupled his appeal with a request that Congress approve a bill that would direct federal agencies to collect data about wage disparities and increase penalties for violating equal-pay status.

'Pass it; it's a good bill,' Mr. Clinton said. 'We need to clearly send the message that wage discrimination against women is just as unacceptable as discrimination based on race or ethnicity.'

Women earn an average of 75 cents for every $1 men are paid, a disparity that Mr. Clinton has noted in the past as evidence of social injustice. For women who are also members of minorities, he said, the disparity is even greater: 64 cents for blacks and 55 cents for Hispanics.

'How would you like to show up for work every day, but only take home 3 out of every 4 paychecks?' Mr. Clinton asked. 'It's not a women's issue. If a woman with a family is being denied equal pay for equal work, her children suffer.'

Under Mr. Clinton's plan, $10 million would go to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to train up to 3,000 employers and 1,000 staff inspectors about equal-pay laws. The Labor Department would receive $17 million to help train women for jobs where they have been underrepresented."

U.S. GOVERNMENT SETTLES SEX DISCRIMINATION CASE FOR $508 MILLION

THE NEW YORK TIMES. Mar. 23. 2000

"The federal government agreed on March 22 to pay $508 million to settle a sex discrimination suit brought by 1,100 women who charged that they were denied jobs and promotions with the agency that disseminates news and information about the United States abroad. The federal judge who has overseen the lawsuit said, it will be the largest settlement ever recorded in a federal sex-discrimination case. Each of the women would receive at least $450,000.

The suit was filed 23 years ago by reporters, editors, announcers, producers and other against the Voice of America, the government-run radio service that offers news and entertainment programs to listeners outside the United States, and its former parent agency, the United States Information Agency. [ldots] While the suit was filed in 1977, it covers the period of 1974 to 1984, which meant that the allegations of discrimination continued long after the litigation began.

In its own newscasts this afternoon, the Voice of America, which describes life in the United States and promotes the virtues of democracy and equality in dozens of languages to a worldwide audience, broadcast the story of its own shortcomings.

In a straightforward script for the English-language newscast at 3:45 p.m., Eastern time, the news service acknowledged that the case 'disclosed that U.S.I.A. and V.O.A. regularly manipulated the hiring process to exclude women.'

'The plaintiffs alleged that the agencies resorted in some cases to test fraud, altering scores and destroying personnel and test files,' it went on. The basic award of $508 million is the largest settlement of any employment discrimination lawsuit, public or private.

In addition to the settlement, the government has already been assessed $22.7 million for 46 women in the group who had won when their cases went to administrative hearings. [ldots]