Problem
The Women's Movement: The ERA
Lucretia Mott, by Joseph Kyle. (Click button for citation)
In July 1923, just before the 75th anniversary of Seneca Falls Convention, Alice Paul announced that she would propose a new amendment to the Constitution that would guarantee the same legal rights to women and men. Originally known as Mott's Amendment in honor of Lucretia Mott, one of the organizers of the Seneca Falls Convention, Paul's proposed amendment led to a sharp division in the feminist movement*.
Supporters of the amendment, led by Paul's National Women's Party, argued that women should be legally equal with men in all respects. Opponents argued that strict equality would require the repeal of protective labor legislation designed to benefit women workers by, for example, requiring them to work shorter hours or exempting them from night work. In general, middle-class feminists tended to favor Paul's amendment while working-class feminists-and organized labor in general-tended to oppose it (Cott, 1990).
Congress was not quick to embrace Paul's amendment. Indeed, it took nearly 50 years before a version of the proposal-by then known as the Equal Rights Amendment, or ERA-won Congressional passage in 1972. And, while the path to ratification initially looked clear, opposition by social conservatives quickly surfaced; ten years later, the ratification deadline expired and the Equal Rights Amendment had been defeated (Burris, 1983).
Answer the following questions:
After reading the article on the ERA, summarize the author's thesis statement about the ERA in one or two sentences. To support your answer, quote one or two sentences from the article that convey the author's central point.