WERU Special 5/31/17: Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)

Producer/Host: Linda Washburn
Engineer: John Greenman

Program Topic: The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)

Key Discussion Points:
a) The Equal Rights Amendment was introduced in 1923. Why was it introduced?
b) 94 years later the ERA languishes- why?
c) What has jump-started interest in the ERA?
d) Are there ways other than a Constitutional amendment to bring equality to women?

Guests:
Posie Cowan, founder of Equal Rights Maine, from the Blue Hill Peninsula
Kathleen Bonk (Brooksville and DC) was involved with ERA ratification starting in 1972, then worked with Betty Ford and Alan Alda on the ERA Countdown Campaign as Communications Chief and is now on the steering committee for the current federal ERA drive.

To learn more about this topic:
Equal Rights Maine at equalrightsmaine.org (local organization)
Equal Means Equal: Why the Time for an Equal Rights Amendment is Now by Jessica Neuwirth, The New Press, 2015.
Why We Lost the ERA by Jane J. Mansbridge, University of Chicago Press, 1986.
Posie’s connection to the suffrage movement: And on to the ERA:
bangordailynews.com/2016/03/28/the-point/my-great-grandmother-fought-for-womens-equal-rights-im-still-working-on-her-dream/?ref=relatedBox
visit www.eracoalition.org and www.equalrightsamendment.org.