Equal Rights Amendment

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. ADAMS. Madam Speaker, I rise today to voice my support for the Equal Rights Amendment.

For 20 years in the North Carolina General Assembly, I fought tirelessly to get our state to ratify the ERA.

And, since joining this body in 2014, I have supported the ERA in every Congress.

That's why I was overjoyed to see Virginia's vote last month to become the 38th and final state needed to ratify the ERA.

For 100 years women in North Carolina, Virginia, and all across this country have been fighting for the ERA.

And we shouldn't have to wait another 100 years to get equal justice under the law.

To this day, women are still paid less for our work, face workplace harassment, and are discriminated against simply for being who they are.

Women who work full time, year-round still only make 82 cents on the dollar for men's earnings.

For women of color, the disparity is even worse.

Black women make only 62 cents, Latinas make 54 cents, and Native women make 58 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men.

One in three women experience sexual violence in their lifetime.

Sixty to seventy percent of women face sexual harassment during their careers.

Sixty-two percent of pregnant women and new moms are in the workforce, yet under current law, pregnant workers can be placed on unpaid leave or forced out of their jobs because of a pregnancy.

These are just some of the reasons that ratifying the ERA is so important.

The ERA would help us fight those battles by prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex in our most important, foundational document: the Constitution.

I think we can all agree that our courts shouldn't have the option to treat women as less than equal.

The Constitution was designed to be amended.

Our founders made mistakes. They counted me as three-fifths of a person. They allowed slavery to persist in our country. They weren't Gods; they were men.

And, as times change, we have a responsibility to change with them to ensure ALL people are afforded equal protections and rights.

To quote Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, ``I ask no favor for my sex; all I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.''

That's why we won't rest until women and men are finally equal under the eyes of the law.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source