The ERA, Equal Rights Amendment, is one of many that are taken advantage of throughout history. Not only has it affected the workplace, it has affected each home.
In the Jan. 1976 edition of The Sentinel, Chris Cash wrote how the ERA is misunderstood. From the time that is known for social progression from political to economic liberties, the potential equality was too much for some.
With the threat of misunderstanding the amendment, Cash describes the amendment to further convince KSU students to support the ERA.
“Let me emphasize that the ERA applies only to governmental action. Purely social relationships between men and women will continue to be what the individuals make it,” Cash said.
With the main fear that men and women would not allowed to talk in the workplace, Cash sought to settle those fears. Though the ERA had been introduced almost every session of Congress, it took 49 years to order become law.
The second fear was attaining to the social changes at home. If women were allowed equal work, the bread winner could ultimately be either parent.
“The amendment would simply require equality. In States where the law provides for alimony only for wives, courts could award alimony to husbands as well, under the same conditions that apply with respects to wives. Mothers and fathers would be legally responsible for supporting their children, as is usually the case under existing law,” Cash said.
Having just ended the Vietnam War a year prior, the decision was left to define what “equal” means.
“Perhaps the uppermost question in the minds of women in whether she will subject to the draft,” Cash said.
The potential earns from a job, but the inevitable death from war, was a decision the students of KSU had to decide if they favored or not in 1976.
The 70s were a time with many social differences than the way lived now.
“The ERA means and the major effects will have. It will not require the abolishment of separate restrooms nor will it suddenly acknowledge homosexual marriages” Cash said.
While social changes were on the prowl, the extent of the social change was in air.
