POLI 330N Week 7 Discussion: Our Struggle for Freedom, Civil Liberties Political Equality

● Option 1: The Equal Rights Amendment was first proposed almost a century ago and has still not been added to the United States Constitution. It is supposed to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex. It was first introduced to Congress by Alice Paul, leader of women's suffrage movement in 1923. Compare/contrast the Equal Rights Amendment with the Fourteenth Amendment. Did they deal with separate concepts? Explain your answer. ● Option 2: The Bill of Rights is not only included with the United States Constitution but also state constitutions. All states have provisions in their constitutions that protect individual rights. Go online and look up your state constitution concerning amendments that are included in the Bill of Rights. How does your state constitution protect your individual rights? Option 1. The Equal Rights Amendment was drafted in 1923 by Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman. The two ladies believed that this amendment would help women to overcome the inequality they often faced. It was approved by Congress in 1972 and reads "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article" (Cohan and Codrington, 2020). It took awhile for Congress to approve this amendment because at the time, Congress was mainly composed of men. There were very few women working in Congress. The Fourteenth Amendment is common to the Equal Rights Amendment in a sense that it discusses the equal rights for an individual. It is different in the sense that it discusses a different right. The Fourteenth Amendment was created in 1868 and stated that all persons born or naturalized in the U.S. were citizens. The Amendment also gave these people equal protection of the law. The Fourteenth Amendment made it clear that each state cannot enforce a law that will abridge privileges of a US citizen (Chamberlain College of Nursing, 2021). The Fourteenth Amendment is similar to the Equal Rights Amendment in which it discusses equal voting rights of U.S. citizens, including women. Chamberlain College of Nursing (2021). Week 7 Lesson: Civil Rights, Liberties, Freedom and the Struggle for Political Equality. Retrieved from Chamberlain University: