THE DISHEARTENING PARALLELS BETWEEN THE 1970s ERA AND THE 2021 EQUALITY ACT

by Emily Blake

We have all heard the phrase if we don’t learn from history, we’re doomed to repeat it. In 2021, looking at freshman members of Congress, this statement couldn’t ring more true. Republican representative Madison Cawthorn (North Carolina Congressional District 11) is a white nationalist with a bucket list that includes visiting Hitler’s home (which he brags about publicly). Marjorie Taylor Greene (Georgia Congressional District 14) is a transphobic, QAnon conspiracy theorist who believes California wildfires have been caused by “Jewish space lazers.” These two individuals were elected by a majority in their districts in 2020. With this information, the question is raised whether those voters even “agree” with some basic concepts: Hitler isn’t someone to idolize and the Constitution ensures freedom to practice any religion without persecution, just to name two things that an elected official would hopefully agree with. It’s not that these people are just ignorant; they are the worst combination— ignorant [about science, the rights afforded by the Constitution they supposedly support] and completely passionate about making sure legislated inequality in the United States persists.

At the beginning of this year, Marjorie Taylor Greene, every Republican Congress member except 3, and all of their cronies began an attack campaign against the Equality Act. Debbie Lesko sent a conspiracy-laden “newsletter” to every individual who is registered to vote in AZ CD8 to falsely claim the Equality Act would allow women to “get raped and abused” more easily. Are you confused about where she made that conclusion from a piece of legislation that calls for “prohibiting discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity”? Me too.

Recently I have been researching Phyllis Schlafly and the Eagle Forum, who were perhaps the biggest threats against the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in the 1970s. Schlafly was a Harvard-educated housewife who in her spare time research and published books on defense policy and the Cold War. When Gloria Steinem, Bella Abzug, Betty Friedan, and the bipartisan National Women’s Political Caucus started the effort to ratify the ERA in the early 1970s, Schlafly began publishing and distributing her newsletter, later to be called the Eagle Forum. This anti-ERA campaign consisted of claims that were loosely based in “Constitutional law,” but in reality were just concealed efforts to ensure women were unable to make decisions for themselves, their bodies, or have “untraditional” families. Some of Schlafly’s claims included that women would then be drafted to war, that children would be troubled because their mothers would be absent (at work), etc. And, surprise surprise, there were claims that gender equity would lead to de-gendered spaces like restrooms and schools, so women would be just up for grabs! Debbie Lesko, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and other Republican Congresswomen are using these exact same arguments almost 50 years later— restricting women and gender minorities abilities to run their own lives (outside of a pre-established, white Christian hegemonic norm) under the guise of caring for their women constituents.