Equal Means Equal: Why the Time for an Equal Rights Amendment Is Now

136 Pages·2015·1.28 MB·English

by  Neuwirth

Founder of the international women’s rights organization Equality Now, Jessica
Neuwirth is the former director of the New York Office of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights. She is the founder and director of the
recently formed ERA Coalition and of Donor Direct Action, an initiative to
support women’s rights organizations around the world. A graduate of Yale
College and Harvard Law School, she lives in New York City.
Gloria Steinem is a world-renowned feminist organizer and writer who co-
founded a variety of organizations in the American women’s liberation
movement, including Ms. magazine, the Ms. Foundation for Women, and the
National Women’s Political Caucus. Her books are published in the United
States and other countries. In recent years, she helped found the Women’s Media
Center, Donor Direct Action, and the ERA Coalition. She travels widely in the
United States and around the world as a speaker and organizer. In 2013, she was
awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She lives in New York City.
One of many buttons from the 1970s ERA campaign highlighting its patriotism.

© 2015 by Jessica Neuwirth Foreword © 2015 by Gloria Steinem All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form, without written permission from the publisher.
Requests for permission to reproduce selections from this book should be mailed to: Permissions
Department, The New Press, 120 Wall Street, 31st floor, New York, NY 10005.
Published in the United States by The New Press, New York, 2015
Distributed by Perseus Distribution LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION
DATA
Neuwirth, Jessica, author.
Equal means equal : why the time for an equal rights amendment is now / Jessica Neuwirth ; foreword by
Gloria Steinem.
pages cm Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-62097-048-5 (e-book) 1. Equal rights amendments—United States. I. Title.
KF4758.N48 2015
342.7308'78—dc23 2014029578
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Book design and composition by dix!
This book was set in Scala
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This book is dedicated to my mother, Gloria Neuwirth, who graduated from Yale
Law School in 1958 only to be told when she interviewed with a New York law
firm, “We don’t hire women, but you’re a pretty girl so we’d be happy to talk to
you.” The bar association would not hire her—they said they couldn’t hire a
woman because they had evening meetings. Today, at the age of eighty, she is
working full time as a partner in the law firm of Davidson, Dawson & Clark. She
is named in Best Lawyers in America and has been listed among New York
Super Lawyers for the past seven years running. She is the best mother anyone
could ever hope for, and I am eternally grateful for her unconditional support in
every way. I also want to pay tribute to my late father, Robert S. Neuwirth, who
gave me every opportunity in the world.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Foreword by Gloria Steinem
Introduction
Pay Inequity
Pregnancy Discrimination
Violence Against Women
Discriminatory Laws
The New ERA
Additional Resources
Appendix 1: Equal Rights Amendment Texts and Related Legislation
Appendix 2: Websites for Action and Further Reading
Appendix 3: The First National Women’s Conference, Houston 1977
Appendix 4: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women (CEDAW)
Notes
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I want to pay tribute to the many courageous women who have suffered the
injustice of discrimination and taken action to defend and promote the
fundamental right to sex equality. I hope to honor the memory of Rebecca,
Katheryn, and Leslie Gonzales, three beautiful girls from Colorado who lost
their lives at the ages of ten, eight, and seven because our law failed to protect
them from the deadly violence of their father, and failed again to deliver justice
to their mother, Jessica Gonzales (now Lenahan), following this tragedy.
Special thanks to Catharine MacKinnon, Robin Morgan, and Gloria Steinem,
whose brilliance has been a constant source of inspiration to me and countless
others. They have guided me over the past twenty years in all my endeavors and
have helped me tremendously with this book, for which I am deeply grateful. It
is truly an honor to work with them and be part of a vision they have done so
much to forge, and continue to advance, for the benefit of women across the
country and around the world.
This book is based on extensive research done over the past year by Paul,
Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison, with great thanks to the firm and to
Maria Vullo, Liza Velazquez, Erin Smith Dennis, and the rest of the team who
have served as pro bono counsel to the Coalition for the ERA.
Thanks also to Chai Feldblum, Roberta Francis, Kamala Lopez, and Eleanor
Smeal for taking the time to read drafts of this book and share their comments
and advice with me, and to Dina Bakst, Taina Bien-Aimé, Jane Connors,
Elizabeth Evatt, Bettina Hager, Kyung-wha Kang, Jane Levikow, Leanne Littrell
DiLorenzo, Laura Neuwirth, Navi Pillay, Diane Rosenfeld, Richard Rothman
and Melissa Salten, Pamela Shifman, Linda Wharton, and Liz Young. Thanks to
Lauren Turner and Elizabeth Hague for research assistance.
It is a privilege to have this book published by The New Press, a unique
publishing company I have long admired. I want to particularly thank Diane
Wachtell, as well as Jed Bickman, Julie Enszer, and Sarah Fan for guiding me
through the process of writing a book for the first time.
FOREWORD