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Posie Cowan of Brooksville is a co-founder of Equal Rights Maine.
Aug. 26 is Equality Day, celebrated across the country as the day women won the right to vote in 1920, and the suffrage amendment was added to the U.S. Constitution. It prohibited voter discrimination based on sex, though many women of color still faced local barriers until later laws, including the Voting Rights Act, were passed by Congress in 1965.
Today, the U.S. Constitution and the Maine Constitution only protect women’s voting rights; neither prohibits sex discrimination.
Although the federal Equal Rights Amendment satisfied all requirements to become our 28th amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 2020 when Virginia ratified and became the needed 38th state, the ERA is stalled, leaving many people confused about its status. It’s now up to Congress, including the Maine delegation, to pass a joint resolution recognizing its ratification and removing any questions about an arbitrary time limit.
But just as state laws were passed after the so-called suffrage amendment creating roadblocks to voting, the same could happen even if the ERA is established in the U.S. Constitution. A Maine Equal Rights Amendment would provide an additional, stronger legal basis around issues related to economic equity and the persistent gender pay gap, access to reproductive healthcare, stopping domestic violence and more. A state ERA could be a safety net for both women and men to ensure that equality of rights is not denied based on sex, regardless of whomever is in the White House when an executive order can reverse decades of progress, as is happening today.
Right now, however, the future of the ERA has become a political issue way beyond the values and principles on which our country was founded — life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, fairness, and a simple matter of justice. We need our political leaders to stand up for those values, for women’s equality, and work to ensure the adoption of both the federal and state ERA.
At the federal level, 2nd District Rep. Jared Golden twice voted in support of the ERA joint resolution to remove the ratification deadline, and 2nd District Democratic candidate Matt Dunlap supports it. U.S. Sen. Susan Collins is a lead co-sponsor of legislation to remove the deadline in the Senate. Troy Jackson, as state Senate majority leader supported Maine’s state ERA.
Some state legislators claim a state ERA will never pass the needed 2/3rd vote, and it’s not worth the effort. We at Equal Rights Maine disagree. It’s not enough for our elected officials to say, “I support the ERA.” We need our state senators and representatives to be our champions for women’s equality in Maine.
Almost all the Republican Maine state legislators for the last 10 years have voted against a state Equal Rights Amendment. The Republican Party deserted the ERA in 1980 when Ronald Reagan was elected president, when it was deleted from the party platform.
There are laws related to gender equality, but these can change. Few thought that Roe v. Wade would be overturned. No one thought that legislators in some states could pass laws taking away women’s rights to birth control and reproductive healthcare or banning all abortions.
No one thought that Violence Against Women Act would be challenged resulting in making it extremely difficult and intimidating for both women and men to bring sexual assault cases.
What can Mainers do to prohibit sex discrimination? They can talk with their state candidates and ask them if they are for or against equality under the law? Will they vote for a Maine Equal Rights Amendment? It is up to us the voters to elect lawmakers who believe men and women should be treated equally, not just through laws but guaranteed in the Maine Constitution.
If you want to protect women’s rights in Maine, vote for state and federal candidates who will support both the Maine Equal Rights Amendment and the ERA Joint Resolution in Congress. Otherwise, there is no safety net, and we risk legislation that could be reversed or eliminated. Look at what’s happening in other states without a state ERA. It could happen here too.
For more information go to equalrightsmaine.org. Show your support for the federal ERA, sign the petition at sign4era.org.