Gender Equality … The Time Is NOW!

The next session in our listening and discussion series with Black Women’s Blueprint is tomorrow, March 11, and the topic is Gender Equality As the Law of the Land – The Work to Pass the ERA.   

Nearly 100 years since Alice Paul introduced the Equal Rights Amendment (1923), the Constitution does not entirely prohibit discrimination based on sex. While we celebrate the many achievements we’ve since made, we know that our work is not done. Women were deliberately left out of the U.S. Constitution and women of color have been left out of the discourse around equality for centuries.   

The struggle to ratify the ERA is part of NOW’s DNA. Just a year after it was founded, NOW passed a resolution support for the ERA , and it has been central to our feminist agenda ever since. I’m excited about tomorrow’s listening session and proud that we’ll be joined by so many allies on the panel, including our keynote speaker, Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY), the longtime House sponsor of the ERA.  

You can register for the session here.   

It’s exciting to be on the cusp of so much positive change for women—but we know we have to work for every inch of progress to include true equity for all women.  President Biden’s announcement this week that he will create a White House Gender Policy Council and direct the Department of Education to address the Trump administration’s assault on Title IX rules, reestablishing the commitment we have long missed from the White House. Our grassroots activism and expertise will be crucial when these policies are put to a vote in the Senate.  

At the heart of NOW’s mission is long overdue political, societal, and behavioral change. We must address the gender bias in society and the systems of economic oppression which carry deeply-seeded structural problems. We want to dismantle the culture of toxic masculinity and rid the workplace of sexual harassment and abuse.  

And we want full Constitutional equality—NOW!