Equal Rights Amendment

I take issue with the headline in Sunday’s article related to the movement in the Senate to revive the Equal Rights Amendment (5/21, A-1, “Senator sits out revival of ERA; For now, Claire McCaskill holds off on supporting an amendment giving equal rights to women”).

While I am not a co-sponsor of the bill to put the question of enactment of the Equal Rights Amendment before the states for ratification, I certainly fully support it. While the article makes that clear, the headline gave the opposite impression. I completely agree with the message behind the ERA, and will vote for the bill when it reaches the floor.

I think the exaggeration and divisiveness that the ERA seems to invoke from opponents of the measure is silly. Why anyone would be against a plain statement that men and women should be treated equally is beyond me. The point I was making in my comments is that we must never stop trying to achieve equality through other means as well, such as electing more women senators, promoting more women to CEO, having more women serve on corporate boards. We can have all the laws in the world that say men and women are equal, but until we show through our actions that we really mean it true equality will continue to elude us.

Claire C. McCaskill
United States senator
Washington D.C.

Comments

[Sophie Demartine]

http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2007/may/video/dnB20070524a.rm&proto=rtsp&start=36:21

The answer to the sheeple problem

[nosheepleallowed]

Legislation like the Bradley Amendment are written with gender bias and it is unconstitutional.
No fault divorce is bologna, something implemented by lawyers for lawyers, by politcians for politicans to get votes from the female constituency.
I am 100% objective in this area, I am not a Democrap or Repubicon.
Both parties are self serving of their gangs and could careless about Americans. Claire is just another wealthy scumbag lawyer.

[nosheepleallowed]

I would hang myself before ever voting for a gold digging, man hater liberal hypocrite like Pelosi.

[nosheepleallowed]

Obviously Irishguy has spent very little time with the inner working of family courts and DCSE. 97% of divorces with children, defaultly award custody to the mother but yet the mother is the poverty stricken victim. The 3% of the cases where men have custody, the child support wards are less than half compared to when the mother is the CP. You need to do your homework Irishguy, I have been in this legal arena in excess of 20 years.

[irishguy]

"Just imagine the line of "equal rights attorenys" at the court house getting custody decrees thrown as as discriminatory against the father!"

It will be a pretty short line, jack. The vast, vast majority of people seeking divorces are able to work things out with the best interests of their children at heart. Including visitation rights.

Among the tiny minority who can't, "custody" issues tend to be more about "child support" issues --- who is going to pay whom for raising the kids.

[stone]

speaking of equal rights, does this amendment remove women as a minority also? I believe that women out populate men in the country, but are allowed to take minority contracts, where men are not considered unless they are a racial minority. Is that equal?

[Engineer]

jack
What's the matter with you? Can't you understand what is really meant by the names advocacy groups give to things? ;<)

[Joe Barone]

If there were a citizen vote, I'd vote for the ERA, but I've always thought the attempt to pass the ERA is like spitting into a headwind. It's divisive and it's not going to happen. The better approach is to do just what Senator McCaskill suggests--work for equal rights across the board.

I admire Senator McCaskill, in part because she doesn't fit anybody's preconception of what she should be. I would expect a senator with the courage not add to the deficit by handing out federal money through earmarks (or whatever they call them) to be independent on other issues too.

[jack]

I am a BIG supporter of the "Equal Rights Amendment". My reason for this is the rule of unintended consequences (see "Iraq Invasion").

Most of the activists pushing this thing have zero wish for equal rights. They believe that women "should be able to have it all". Please note, for one person or one group to "have it all", the other person or group, by definition, can have NOTHING.

They want all the societal goodies that women have, all the societal goodies that men have, and none of the bad parts of either. Don't we all?

I can't wait for the ERA to pass. Just imagine the line of "equal rights attorenys" at the court house getting custody decrees thrown as as discriminatory against the father!

And no more "Title 9" sports! Everyone must be equal! No gender based rules for participation in any sport! One basketball team, one football team, one track team, one baseball team, one tennis team. Whoever the biggest, fastest players are get to participate and the small, slower athletes can just sit it out!

And one more rule that must go. Get those women enlisting in the military off their knees when they do push-ups! We are all equal here. If they can't do the push-ups the same way as the men, they shouldn't be let in!

After all, fair is fair and equal is equal.

[Stifled Freedom]

Senator, I respect you taking the time to write this.

I am absolutely for equal rights between men and women, but I dont think it exists.

Opportunities for promotion and election of women to political and executive positions is available to men and women alike. But these are really not legal rights. These are voluntary services and if you work for it and earn it, you can get it. Look at yourself...your a United States Senator.

My concerns are with the law. At this time, I personally believe the law gives quite a bit of advantage to women over men. Women have the benefit of the doubt in divorce and criminal law. Women are generally given lighter sentences for the same crimes as men.

I got to www.state.gov, I see a whole department dedicated to women. I find nothing for men. I go to private groups like the ACLU, I see a dept dedicated to women. I find nothing for men. Its been this way for 40 years.

Yes it is true a majority of politicians are men, but the legislation they pass is not reflective. We must look past the demographics.

Please give due consideration to the bill and ensure that it does provide equal rights to women....but also consider the men in your constituency and ensure that the bill does not go too far to disadvantage men's rights. We have a right to justice too.

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And NoSheepleallowed, please further explain your comment.

[BuddyT]

Senator McCaskill,
Listen up! one of your major supporters is telling you how to vote, and you had better listen....you had just better, OR, you had better have a darn good explanation, right Soph?!

lol....what a hoot, I love it!

[Sophie Demartine]

Its great to be for the ERA, Claire, and I applaud you for it, but more important today is ending the slaughter in Iraq.

We must leave now, it is our presence that is making Iraq a living hell for the people, the Iraqi Children, we don't need the oil, we can do fine without it, so please vote NAY on the supplemental, don't add your name to the list of Sheeple who vote YEA..

If you really want to end terrorism legislate stronger regulations on our oil companies, arms dealers, Blackwater, Halliburton, Carlyle, etc. keep them from exploiting the the third world especially in Africa where we import 30% of our oil today.

We stop our terrorism they'll stop theirs.

As soon as we leave Iraq the Iraqi people will kick out Al Qaida themselves, they want Democracy not another Saddam, the Iranian people want Democracy too, when we leave, the Iranian people will change their government too, its clear to all our experts, consult with Juan Cole and Noam Chomsky these people are highly intelligent and know what is going on and can give you the facts. Talk to them that's your job as Senator, to be informed.

Don't fall for the hype like the other Sheeple in Congress, vote like Feingold, Pelosi, Kucinich, people you respect, vote NAY.

Think how many American lives and military families that will respect you if you vote NAY, when all the truth on this invasion comes out you'll be among those who showed courage when it was needed, like Feingold and Kucinich did in 2003.

Show some courage, we elected you to end the war, so do it, please.

[nosheepleallowed]

So she is NOT for equal rights