By Dolores M. Klein, Peoria, IL

I’m sure the Suffragists were an ongoing “pain in the neck,” during all those years from when Abigail Adams pleaded with the framers of the Constitution to “remember the ladies … regard us as beings…” until the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920. So, I expect to encounter “E.R.A. Fatigue” when I remember that Suffragist Alice Paul introduced, for the first time, The Equal Rights Amendment in 1923. In 1982, we were robbed of t hat full constitutional equality, short of three states. Today, headlines make two main arguments that opponents used to vote it down – more than Ironic!

One reason: the “bugaboo” that homosexuals would gain all kinds of benefits from it. Now, without the Amendment, Illinois is voting to legalize Gay Marriage!

Secondly, they claimed that women would “be squatting in the trenches with men.” Of course, the military had the right to draft women, after giving us the right to vote. Now headlines tell us that the Pentagon will move women “into combat jobs” and that four of the new astronauts are women, one a former combat pilot! As the military struggles to deal with sex assaults, their reason “the disparity of the roles leads to disrespect for women.”

The full constitutional equality of the Amendment would have benefitted women already in the military with a tool for upward mobility, and a tool to fight sexual mistreatment. And, with a small percentage of states having their own E.R.A.’s, all women would have gained federal gender equality.

The status of the Equal Rights Amendment today? It is introduced at the beginning of every session of congress and there is an ongoing three state strategy.

With Susan B. Anthony, we promise “NEVER ANOTHER SEASON OF SILENCE.”