0:05

Hey, this is Emily and and you're

0:07

listening to stuff mom never told you today.

0:20

I am super excited to talk

0:22

through what I think is quite an untold

0:25

story behind the holiday

0:27

celebrated on August here in the United

0:30

States known as Women's

0:32

Equality Day. Women's Equality

0:35

Day to me, used to come up on the calendar, on that

0:37

list of sort of holidays that

0:39

you might google if you are in social

0:41

media and need to come up with graphics for holidays,

0:44

just to get some content out there, all right, just

0:46

to like whatever we need. And then I'm

0:48

I'm as big a feminist as they come, and I really didn't

0:51

think August was the

0:53

best way to honor women. I was thinking, this is kind

0:55

of a lousy time in the calendar. Everyone's on vacation.

0:58

What a random arbor preary day

1:01

that I think also coin signs with Free

1:03

Cone Day and Ben and Jerry's That's

1:05

one of my favorite holidays, which to me is like a win

1:07

for all and win for women, but are also kind

1:09

of upstages Women's Equality Days sometimes.

1:12

Yeah, I definitely have commemorated. This

1:14

makes me sound like a bad feminist. I've definitely commemorated

1:16

Code Day more than I have uh commemorated

1:19

Women's Quality Day exactly Roxane

1:21

Gay would be proud of. It's a hashtag bad feminist.

1:24

But as it turns out, there

1:27

is a huge, fascinating, amazing

1:29

story behind this holiday, which

1:32

was established in nineteen

1:34

seventy one thanks to a quite

1:36

a character who we're going to talk more about today,

1:39

Representative Bella Abzug of New York,

1:42

to commemorate the passage of

1:44

the Nineteenth Amendment, which granted

1:46

women the right to vote way back in nineteen

1:49

twenty. So this

1:51

is a holiday that allows us every year

1:53

to celebrate the Nineteenth Amendment, to celebrate

1:55

the fact that our constitution says women

1:57

as well as men should have the right to vote. But

2:00

at the same time, it's also a

2:02

reminder of the amendment

2:05

that never passed or never became

2:07

ratified by the United States of America,

2:10

which is known as the e r A or

2:12

the Equal Rights Amendment. So

2:14

some of the unfinished business

2:17

of constitutional equality

2:20

tends to be sort of churned up when

2:22

we start to celebrate the Nineteenth Amendment. Today,

2:24

we want to talk about the story

2:27

behind women's suffrage, how we won the right

2:29

to vote, which is really what August

2:31

twenty six Women's Equality Days all about

2:33

get to know the fascinating character

2:36

that is representative Bella Abzug

2:38

and talk a little bit more about the work we have yet to

2:41

finish, our unfinished business when it comes

2:43

to constitutional equality. So

2:45

let's take it back a little bit and talk about how

2:47

we got to the nineteenth Amendment. So the

2:50

nineth Amendment really was a culmination

2:52

of a massive, peaceful civil rights movement led

2:54

by women, but notably mostly

2:56

white women. The Asthenical Falls in New York we're talking

2:58

about, And really this had its formal

3:00

beginnings in eighteen forty eight at the world's

3:02

first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, New

3:05

York. So, like a lot of good things in the world, it

3:07

came from New York, just like our beloved

3:09

Bella. Indeed, and even

3:12

after the hard

3:14

fought battle for women's suffrage

3:16

was over in the United States when women

3:19

won the right to vote in the nineteen ratification

3:22

of the nineteenth Amendment. Uh,

3:25

you know, this went without a holiday, This one

3:27

without a holiday for fifty one years. But

3:30

on the fiftieth anniversary,

3:32

which was in nineteen seventy

3:34

on August seventy, fifty

3:36

thousand women marched

3:38

down New York City's Fifth Avenue

3:41

in a display of super strength

3:43

of second wave feminism. This is like

3:46

nineteen seventies second wave feminisms

3:48

shining moment, and I mean

3:51

there were many shining moments, because was there like force

3:53

of strength on display and

3:55

this sort of does that remind you of anything that happened pretty

3:58

recently? It's sure? What is that the

4:00

march of what do we call it, technically the

4:02

women March, the

4:04

Women's March on Washington. Yeah, absolutely,

4:07

And so I think the numbers in

4:09

that round were global and in the

4:11

millions, right, what was the eight millions? I've

4:15

heard it's the largest march of women

4:17

or I think it was the largest march on

4:20

of all times. That the record it um

4:22

Then again, they didn't have Twitter, they enough

4:25

the Internet. So fifty women marching

4:27

down Fifth Avenue is still amazing. And

4:30

what they were doing is they were celebrating the fiftieth anniversary

4:32

of the nineteenth Amendment, and

4:34

simultaneously, as is so necessary

4:37

unfortunately in the women's rights

4:39

movement and in feminism in general, they

4:42

were protesting vocally

4:45

the limits and expectations

4:47

still placed on American womanhood, demanding

4:49

changes to child care and abortion policies,

4:53

education and employment opportunities,

4:55

and many of these women abandoned their usual

4:58

domestic duties for the day to

5:00

join forces with sisters from across the

5:02

country, staging sit ins and takeovers

5:05

of all male spaces like bars

5:08

that were still all male. And it was really,

5:10

um a fiftieth anniversary

5:12

opportunity for women to flex their

5:15

political might and show the world that,

5:17

you know, we're here, We've got the right to vote. There's

5:20

still a lot more than we need. So what's

5:22

so great about that to me is one is that

5:24

that that today we did that same tactic.

5:26

I don't know if you all participated, but UM,

5:29

on March eight seventeen, we

5:31

had a Day without a Woman, where the idea was

5:33

that women should whatever duties

5:35

that they have, they should not

5:38

do them so that to sort of flex our

5:40

muscles as folks who identify as women.

5:42

So I just love that that's something that's been a tactic

5:45

for a while. I also just think it's really

5:48

notable that the things that you just listed that

5:50

these women were marching against,

5:52

we have not won those battles. We are still

5:54

fighting for abortion rights in this country

5:57

today in twenties seventeen, we are still

5:59

fighting for you know, employment

6:01

opportunities and education opportunities, and child

6:03

and better childcare, affordable childcare.

6:06

These are it's it's maddening

6:08

to think how long we have been fighting these

6:10

battles and that these conversations are still happening.

6:12

Our fore mothers would be probably

6:15

disappointed that we are still fighting

6:17

these battles so many years later

6:19

than we have not won them yet. And even

6:21

the ones that we seemingly have one like

6:23

access to abortion being technically

6:25

legal, we're on the defensive

6:28

because technically legal isn't the same

6:31

as accessible and

6:33

accessible to all people. So I think

6:35

that's such a great point and it's also a reminder

6:37

that we have to be vigilant. We have to

6:39

be vigilant, and that women have been busting their butts

6:42

to win these rights over for us for

6:44

decades and it almost as

6:46

long as our country has existed and beyond.

6:49

So when this march

6:52

to commemorate the Nineteenth Amendment occurred

6:55

one year later, to put it in

6:57

stone and really commemorate this as an annual

6:59

date celebration, Congresswoman

7:02

Bella Abzug, a Democrat from New York,

7:04

introduced a bill that would formally establish

7:07

National Equality Day or Women's Equality

7:09

as a day of recognition. But really

7:13

we have to take a second, bridget to talk about

7:15

Congresswoman Bella Abzug, for

7:17

whom Women's Equality Day was actually one

7:19

of the more symbolic pieces of legislation

7:22

that she's passed. This woman

7:25

is a force to be reckoned

7:28

with. Was an absolute character and

7:31

memorable like history maker

7:34

that I feel has

7:36

not gotten her fair share of

7:38

of of space in our history books. To be completely

7:41

honest, totally so, I sadly

7:43

had never heard of her, But I have to just give

7:45

a quick plug if you like, stop

7:48

this podcast and google immature because

7:50

you need to see what she looks like, and also

7:52

maybe quickly YouTube her. You

7:55

have to hear her the way that I could listen to

7:57

her speak all day. She did

8:00

own. You just meet someone who has

8:02

a way of putting things and has a way of speaking

8:04

that you're just like. I could listen to you

8:06

talk about this issue all day. She's that person.

8:09

Like, google her immature and then

8:11

start a petition for Kathy Bates to play her in

8:13

a movie. Please, I want to watch this.

8:15

Bella had a reputation for always wearing

8:18

big hats, just like one of my favorite

8:20

lawmakers and Florida

8:22

always was a hat. And Bella was an attorney,

8:24

and she used to say that she wore big hats

8:27

so that she would be taken more seriously. After

8:29

being completely mistaken for

8:31

secretary in her office time

8:33

and time and time again, she said, working women wear

8:35

hats, that's what they do. But

8:37

to take it back even further. Bella was

8:39

born Bella Savinsky on

8:41

July in New

8:44

York City. She comes from the Bronx, so she

8:46

was actually born one month prior

8:49

to the Nineteenth Amendment being

8:51

ratified. She was destined for greatness

8:53

exactly so she's she was

8:55

the child of Russian immigrants.

8:58

She was a Jewish woman, and she

9:00

was really a bold and outspoken

9:03

leading liberal activist and politician

9:05

who came to the forefront of progressive

9:08

politics in the sixties and seventies, especially

9:11

known for her work on women's rights, but also

9:14

on behalf of the efforts around civil rights,

9:16

gay rights, and anti war efforts

9:18

around Vietnam. She started

9:21

off her career knowing

9:23

from an early age that she wanted to be a lawyer.

9:25

At Hunter College, she demonstrated her natural

9:28

leadership abilities as the president of the student

9:30

council there. She went on to earn her law

9:32

degree from Columbia University after

9:34

being rejected from Harvard

9:37

Law School because of her gender.

9:40

Harvard a terrible Harvard.

9:44

UM. I just love this quote about her, uh

9:47

in Time magazine. No

9:49

one friend or enemy denies

9:51

that Bella Abzug has a certain presence.

9:54

I just see her as from day one, you

9:56

know, whether it's like getting rejected

9:58

from Harvard and being like, screw your I'm

10:00

going on to clumb there. I had to see her

10:02

taking charge since day one, and I love

10:05

it good because she her work was

10:07

needed and she knew that she

10:09

was you know, she needed that kind of

10:11

force to be reckoned with attitude

10:13

to take on the kinds of fights she took on. So

10:16

she started in labor law, moved

10:18

on to tackling civil rights cases working

10:20

for the a c. L U. She took on the Willie

10:23

McGee case. McGee was an African

10:25

American man convicted of raping a white

10:27

woman in Mississippi, thought

10:29

by many at the time to be completely

10:32

innocent. Abzug faced death

10:34

threats from many white supremacists for

10:36

her involvement in the case, and Uh

10:39

she was while unsuccessful

10:41

tragically at getting him acquitted,

10:44

she did managed to get his death sentence

10:46

delayed through appealing his conviction time

10:48

and time again. All of her efforts early on

10:51

failed in her career, giving her this huge

10:53

blow um when

10:55

sadly and tragically McGhee was executed

10:58

in nine many

11:01

historians believe wrongfully. So

11:03

yeah, and I just think that it's so important

11:06

to note the ways that she has been this

11:08

fighter on these issues for so long, at the

11:10

forefront of so many different intersecting causes.

11:13

She defended many people who had been accused

11:15

of communist activities by Joseph McCarthy,

11:18

and then later in the sixties she became involved

11:20

in the anti nuclear and peace and anti war

11:22

movements. Again, these were these great

11:24

intersecting movements all around, sort of social

11:26

justice and social change. And it's kind of criminal

11:29

that we don't hear more about her, considering

11:31

she was at the forefront of so many of these movements

11:34

that we think of as formative, right, And she's this

11:36

colorful, outspoken some

11:39

might even call her brash Jewish

11:41

woman from the bronx wearing giant hats.

11:43

I mean, she is a character, and

11:45

she was good at what she did, and especially

11:47

in her six years in Congress, and just

11:50

to sort of paint a picture here of

11:52

the woman that is Congresswoman Bella

11:54

Abzug. On her first day in

11:57

her six year tenure in Congress, she

11:59

decided to make a pretty bold move with

12:01

putting forth a bill to remove all

12:04

US troops from Vietnam boom,

12:06

like the first day, that's sort

12:08

of what she put out there. Now

12:11

when the measure didn't pass, it

12:13

was the first of many efforts of hers.

12:15

Uh that didn't always lead

12:18

to a successful outcome, but nevertheless is

12:20

part of Bella Abzug spirit, which is to always

12:23

fight for the causes that you believe in. Didn't

12:25

She really early on in her career

12:28

formally dropped legislation to have the president

12:30

impeached. Yeah, she was one of the first

12:32

people to publicly call for the resignation,

12:35

no, the impeachment of President

12:37

Richard Nixon. That is some Maxine

12:40

Waters level of of

12:42

getting down to business. Like Bella Abzug

12:45

is not here to play around with you. She came

12:47

and she means business absolutely.

12:49

After leaving the House of Representatives in n she

12:52

made a bid for New York City mayor but

12:55

lost to Ed Cotch in the primaries. She

12:57

was appointed by President Jimmy Carr

13:00

Order to co chair the National Advisory Committee

13:02

for Women in nineteen seventy eight, but the

13:04

next year Carter dismissed the

13:06

outspoken abzug

13:09

Um, which is kind of a sad mark

13:11

on the history here. But it wasn't the end of

13:13

her fighting for the causes that she believed

13:16

in. She tried again for public office in nineteen

13:18

six UM but was unsuccessful

13:21

then UH And even while public

13:23

office later eluded her, she continued

13:26

to work on many of the causes UH

13:28

that she cared about, specifically around establishing

13:31

the Women's Environmental Development Organization.

13:34

I love this so much because it really puts

13:36

her on the level of a lot of my idols,

13:39

like because she worked with folks like Shirley Chisholm.

13:41

She worked with Gloria stein Um, these women

13:43

that you think of that's so foundational to our

13:45

history, right our our four mothers.

13:48

She was right alongside with them working for

13:50

social change her whole life. I

13:52

think it's important because she belongs to be up

13:54

there right with the Gloria Steinem's, with

13:58

Shirley Chisholms of the world, and she

14:00

is in many ways representing this

14:03

category of women who we don't see very often

14:05

our history books, which is badass American,

14:08

immigrant, Jewish political

14:10

women, our foremothers. Totally. I just

14:12

love fella Abs. Like now, I'm dying to see Kathy

14:14

Bates player and google

14:18

image her and tell me Kathy Bates should not play her

14:20

in a movie. I'm telling you it's

14:22

true, It's absolutely true. And she's known for her outspokenness.

14:25

Yeah, and you've got to hear her accent. It's like from

14:27

the Bronx. She does not mess around. I would not

14:29

mess around with Congresswoman Bella Abs.

14:32

Can you imagine if she actually had been mayor would

14:34

have been amazing? Amazing, amazing.

14:36

All right, So we're going to take a quick break,

14:39

but when we come back, I want to talk

14:41

through even further why

14:44

remembering and celebrating the nineteen

14:46

Amendments passage is so important

14:48

because we might think of it as a done deal now, but

14:51

back in it was

14:53

far from certain. We'll be right back after

14:55

a word from our sponsors, and

15:05

we're back, and we've been talking through the fascinating

15:07

history behind Women's Equality

15:09

Day, and where we want to go next

15:11

is just to highlight the fact that we

15:14

should very much be celebrating

15:17

the Nineteenth Amendment and the right for

15:19

women to vote, because this

15:21

was far from an easy battle

15:23

back in when the

15:26

Nineteenth Amendment was finally ratified. And

15:29

what's funny here is that it's important to note

15:31

that some of the states were way ahead

15:33

of the game, states like where it wasn't even

15:35

a state at the time, but the Territory of Wyoming

15:37

became the first part of our country to

15:40

grant women the right to vote back in eighteen

15:42

sixty nine, which that surprises

15:44

me. I wouldn't think it'd be a state out west,

15:47

but who you know who knew? What? They call it the wild, wild

15:49

wild women

15:52

voting where anything could happen,

15:54

including something as radical and scandalous

15:57

as a lady vote. Women voting called

16:01

called shariff. And then

16:03

came the Territory of Utah, the Territory

16:06

of Washington, the Territory of Montana,

16:08

all in eighteen seventy eight three,

16:10

and eighteen eighties seven, respectively. Utah

16:13

and Idaho came next, followed

16:15

shortly thereafter by uh Washington,

16:18

d c, Oregon, Kansas, Arizona.

16:20

And it really took us all the way to nineteen twenty

16:22

to say, or really to nineteen nineteen, I should

16:25

say, for the US Congress to say, Okay, this is a federal

16:27

issue, thanks to Suffer dots really totally

16:29

and so you know, shout out to the badass

16:31

organizing that these that these women did. So at

16:33

this point it really comes down to Tennessee. It's really

16:36

dragging its feet and needs to get on board,

16:38

so much so that in August President Woodrow

16:40

Wilson set things in motion by asking

16:43

Governor Roberts to call a special session

16:45

of the Tennessee Assembly just to deal

16:47

with this. So at this point it's like, get

16:50

it together, you know, Tennessee needs

16:52

to stop dragon its feet and get some forward

16:54

momentum on this issue. And of course,

16:56

just like anyone would when a

16:58

national issue, all hinges on one state

17:01

house, what happens. All the lobbyists,

17:03

all of the energy, all the suffragettes

17:05

who have been fighting this good fight

17:07

for a long time, of course

17:10

descend on Tennessee. It's

17:12

I mean, I can I would watch a movie of this. It's

17:14

amazing. So the Suffragette supporters

17:17

were yellow roses, the antis were

17:19

red roses. The Senate went yellow,

17:21

but the House wasn't evenly divided. This is like

17:23

the stuff that you know they write that they

17:26

write movies about. This is the kind of palpable

17:29

tension and drama that sometimes comes to

17:31

politics, which I love totally. I would

17:33

watch this movie. In fact,

17:35

Bridget, there is a movie called

17:37

One Woman, One Vote that came out. Y'all

17:41

should check out if you want to see it.

17:43

But I think this is ready for the modern day

17:45

screen. I would I want to see Hulu produced the

17:47

next

17:50

Bella ab Cavy Bates. What more

17:52

do you need? A hot issue going to the

17:54

wee hours of the night in the Tennessee

17:57

legislature. Yeah, And the drama didn't

18:00

end there. So when the Speaker of the House

18:02

seth Walker wearing a red

18:04

rose, meaning he was anti giving the vote

18:06

to women, he entered a motion

18:08

to table the resolution, which we

18:10

know in political speak means let's

18:13

never deal with this again. Let's just put it

18:15

in the dustbin of history and never see

18:17

it will never see the light of day exactly. So

18:19

what did that result? In? A tie? They

18:21

called another vote after the whips

18:23

did their best whipping another

18:25

tie, and when the clerk began

18:27

the third roll call vote, this

18:30

time about the resolution itself, not about

18:32

whether to table it or not, but a straight up

18:34

and down vote about whether or not

18:36

to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment and grant women

18:39

the right to vote. One man

18:41

who had been wearing a red rose changed

18:44

his colors. So the famous story

18:46

is that Harry Burne, year old from

18:48

East Tennessee, who had received had received

18:50

a letter from his mother, Phoebe e burn telling

18:53

him to quote put the rat in ratification.

18:56

Um, I'm not exactly sure

18:58

like what that means if it's an expression, but

19:01

basically maybe if you're from Tennessee,

19:03

please write it and let us know if that's the thing that y'all

19:05

say. But essentially she just meant,

19:08

you know, get this done and get

19:10

it done. He did. I love this that

19:13

A young man, a twenty four

19:15

year old Representative, Harry Burne

19:17

cast the deciding vote. So the vote

19:20

is over. They just voted to ratify the

19:22

Nineteenth Amendment, finally getting it through

19:25

the final chamber of the final

19:27

Legislature. But the drama

19:29

wasn't over yet because still the

19:31

Antis had the Speaker of the House in

19:34

their pocket. Right, so the Speaker of the House was Anti.

19:36

He was a red rose wearer, and he

19:39

was starting to get a vote

19:41

called to try to reconsider

19:43

the issue. So he was trying to

19:46

basically say, let's have a do over, mulligans.

19:49

Yeah, we just gave ladies the

19:51

right to vote. Let's let's give that another reconpere

19:54

that. So what

19:56

happened was they thought they could build some more support

19:58

for the red row is wearing anti

20:01

UH ratifiers. But in

20:03

anticipation of a reconsideration vote,

20:06

thirty eight legislators,

20:09

thirty eight state legislators who had just voted

20:11

for women's right to vote left

20:14

the state. They fled the state, crossing the border

20:16

into Alabama in order to prevent the Assembly

20:18

from having a quorum or having enough people

20:21

present to justify having a vote, which is part

20:23

of the wonky wonky rules of state legislatures

20:26

um to prevent any future voting from happening.

20:28

So boom, it's done. I'm running away. We can't

20:30

redo this, and

20:35

so you know, both sides, of course, took

20:37

legal action, tried to get lawyers to

20:40

say that it was a moot vote,

20:42

and even after a judge issued a temporary

20:45

injunction restraining

20:47

the governor from giving the certificate

20:49

of ratification to the Secretary of State, and

20:51

in doing so he said no women

20:54

will vote for a year and a half at least

20:56

as some reassurance to the anti ratifiers.

20:59

But even then, the governor said he would use the power

21:01

of his office to sign the certification,

21:04

which is what he did. On August. It

21:07

was sent to Washington in uh pre

21:10

internet times. That meant this didn't happen

21:12

until the next day. It was sent to Washington,

21:14

arriving just before four a m.

21:17

And on August the

21:20

Nineteenth Amendment became part of the U. S Constitution.

21:22

Who happy ending?

21:26

Um, I mean, I have to

21:28

I should probably add if I'm seeing a little

21:30

loopy on today's episode, it's because just

21:32

last night I was up all night watching

21:34

the Senate floor debate on Obamacare,

21:37

and it's just reminding me how

21:40

we think of politics as this thing that happens with

21:42

old white guys and suits in Congress

21:45

and blah blah blah. And that's certainly part of it, but

21:47

so much is late night drama,

21:51

you know, activists and organizers

21:53

descending on one location and waiting

21:55

through the night on what's going to happen. And

21:57

this reading this story is taking me back to to

22:00

night where I'm up. It's three am.

22:02

Your heart is pounding, you don't know what's going to happen,

22:04

and before your very eyes, history

22:07

gets made and it's it's it's

22:09

amazing. The country we live in is

22:11

truly amazing, absolutely well

22:14

said. And it's those moments

22:16

in politics that I think we live

22:18

for, and especially as activists who

22:21

are fighting a long

22:23

fight for issues like this, that we are still

22:26

fighting. So with that, let's

22:28

take a moment to take a quick break,

22:31

and when we come back, we're going to talk

22:34

about how epic of

22:36

victory the Nineteenth Amendment was, but

22:38

how much it reminds us of the work that has

22:40

yet to be completed. We'll be

22:42

right back, and

22:51

we're back, and we're doing a little

22:53

happy dance after celebrating

22:55

the victory of ratification

22:58

of the nineteenth Amendment. Is a good thing to celebrate

23:00

this August. So get get your

23:02

gal paths together and get your guide pals

23:04

together, and everybody celebrated. Quality.

23:07

Equality is for everyone. Yeah. Um,

23:10

However, speaking of equality,

23:13

Women's Equality Day doesn't

23:16

quite do that Legislative

23:19

Victory Justice because actually

23:21

the legislative Victory Justice doesn't do that

23:23

holiday right because just

23:26

three years after the

23:28

ratification of the nineteenth Amendment. UH,

23:31

the next move for feminists in

23:34

the nineteen twenties was seemingly

23:37

obvious next step, which was to introduce

23:39

a constitutional amendment for

23:43

the overall equality of women, for

23:45

women to be legally stated

23:47

in the Constitution as equal in

23:49

rights on all fronts, not just voting

23:52

to male counterparts or to other people

23:54

in general. And so this piece of legislation,

23:56

the Equal Rights Amendment, known as the

23:58

e R A, was end by Alice

24:01

Ross and introduced to Congress in nine and

24:05

yet nineteen twenty three, just

24:07

three years after the ratification of the nineteenth

24:09

Amendment. It was super

24:11

not popular, and it wasn't even passed

24:13

by Congress for another

24:15

forty nine consecutive sessions.

24:19

So something to note is that this was kind of a polarizing

24:21

piece of legislation. UM. Even Eleanor

24:24

Roosevelt was opposed to it for many many years,

24:26

and one of her major objections but she questioned

24:29

how the e R A would impact protective labor

24:31

legislation for rules that guarded for

24:33

issues around for hours or dangerous

24:35

work conditions for women specifically. And

24:37

so this wasn't like a you know, something

24:40

that everyone was on board with quiet. The opposite

24:42

was a little bit polarizing. And so it's interesting

24:44

that here we are, so many years later

24:46

and it's still you know, yeah,

24:50

and the Equal Rights Amendment just says that women

24:52

are equal to men. It says that women should

24:54

be protected as equal citizens and treated

24:57

as equal citizens. But I can't help but think

24:59

back to our episod out on benevolent sexism,

25:01

right, b because this idea

25:03

of women at the time, Eleanor Roosevelt

25:06

at the time saying no, no, no no, we can't legally

25:08

treat women as equal, we have to treat

25:10

them as special. Right, it is so benevolent.

25:12

I was thinking back to our episode around nipples,

25:15

where you know, that's just one of those

25:17

issues where men and women are not equal in

25:19

the eyes of the law. And so clearly you

25:22

might think that we've come a long way, and certainly

25:24

we have, but we still have these these battles

25:26

to fight. And so finally Congress does

25:28

pass the Equal Rights Amendment, but only after

25:31

years and decades of reintroduction.

25:34

It finally passes it on March nine,

25:37

two two years after women are

25:40

marching the streets of New York City celebrating

25:42

the nineteenth Amendment passage

25:44

and ratification, and one year after

25:46

Bella Abzug makes August twenty

25:48

six Women's Equality Day. A

25:51

year later, we're still fighting for the equal rights

25:53

of women. And so here we go again,

25:56

another round of how to actually

25:58

make a constitutional amendment. So

26:00

back in back in the first case on the nineteenth

26:02

Amendment, of course it all came down to Tennessee, but

26:05

this time Tennessee wasn't

26:07

even on the list of of of states that

26:09

held it up. Unfortunately, the list

26:11

was a long one. Yeah, Tennessee, definitely.

26:13

I think they learned their lesson this time. They didn't

26:15

want any of this drama. So by nineteen

26:17

seventy seven, the legislatures of thirty five

26:20

states had approved the amendment. In nineteen

26:22

seventy eight, Congress voted to extend the original

26:24

March nineteen seventy nine deadline to June

26:27

thirtieth nine and eighty two. However, no

26:29

additional states voted yes before that

26:31

date, and the e r A fell three just three

26:34

states short of ratification. These

26:36

fifteen states that did not ratify the e r

26:38

A before the nineteen eight two deadline were Alabama,

26:41

Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia,

26:44

Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi,

26:46

Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma,

26:48

South Carolina, Utah, and Virginia.

26:51

So basically, they took the

26:54

most passive aggressive policy

26:57

stance possible, which is to

27:00

get from Congress a congressionally

27:03

past constitutional amendment that

27:05

just needs your two bodies of the state legislature,

27:07

the state Senate in the state House to sign off

27:10

on for this thing to actually become

27:12

the law of the land. And fifteen

27:14

states drag their feet. We've got

27:16

between nineteen seventy two and the original

27:18

deadline ninety nine. That's what

27:21

that's like, seven years to get

27:23

it together. Seven years that go by them saying,

27:25

you know what's not a priority this year, let's

27:27

just not hold a vote, or let's hold a vote

27:30

and vote no on the e r A. And

27:32

also the fact that we're talking about just a

27:34

law that says that men and women are equal

27:36

in the eyes of the law. That's it's not a groundbreaking

27:39

thing. It's not it shouldn't be an earth shattering

27:41

thing. The fact that we couldn't just all get on

27:43

board with that, it's pretty wild. It's pretty

27:46

telling, I think for all the worker country still

27:48

has to do so. Even upon extending the

27:50

deadline to two they

27:52

still don't pass it, which is the

27:54

great unfinished business of Women's

27:56

Equality Day. How can we really celebrate

27:58

Women's Equality Day, you know, celebrating

28:00

the ratification of the nineteenth Amendment without acknowledging

28:03

that there was another amendment that

28:05

the states had the same obligation to

28:08

pass, to vote on that we just have not gotten

28:10

it together for so really, what this demonstrates,

28:13

I think, is how far we've come,

28:16

but how much more we have to go.

28:18

The fact that we still don't have this thing passed.

28:20

It's still not the law of the land. All the stuff

28:22

they fought for, all the hard earned

28:25

rights that they were in the streets marching

28:27

for and making noise about and clawing

28:29

for. Here we are, twenties seventeen,

28:31

still doing the same thing. Yeah, and I'm

28:33

not I'm unclear as to whether or

28:36

not, you know, legally we can just

28:38

pass it in these states now and make it a thing,

28:40

because I think because the deadline already passed, Congress

28:42

has to retake the issue. So I'm not exactly

28:44

optimistic of Donald Trump's Republican

28:47

controlled I can't even call it his Congress because

28:49

I don't think they like him very much right now either. But

28:52

in seventeen I don't think this Congress

28:54

is going to prioritize the r A. But we

28:56

need our members of Congress to make this an

28:58

issue, to pass it once again, to send

29:00

it back on to the states for ratification. But

29:03

you know, in the meantime, we've seen some

29:05

symbolic gestures, like

29:08

in this past March, forty

29:10

five years to the day that the Congress

29:12

first passed the e r A, Nevada became

29:14

the thirty sixth state to ratify it.

29:17

But I really I don't even think that makes a difference.

29:19

At this point, the deadline has passed. So

29:21

I would like to see our politicians are political

29:24

leaders, stop giving the Equal Its Amendment

29:26

lip service and start actually making it a priority

29:29

because until then, technically we

29:31

do not have equal rights under the law. Totally,

29:33

I completely agree, and I think you

29:36

hit the nail on the head in terms of symbolic things

29:38

like we have all of these monuments that are meant

29:40

to symbolically pay

29:42

tribute to the e r A under these women into

29:45

equality, but that doesn't really do anything for us.

29:47

We need actual legislation, not monuments.

29:49

And so I'm thinking of President Barack Obama's

29:51

administration, who formerly

29:54

made the seawall, Belmont House, and a museum

29:57

a part of a national monument to celebrate

29:59

women's his three at National Park sites. And

30:01

that's obviously great, but

30:04

that's not legislation. And as nice as

30:06

that is, as much as I love Barack Obama, that

30:08

perhaps does not help women as much as pat getting

30:11

this stuff passed. Right. So this August,

30:14

let us do two things. One, let's

30:16

commemorate and accelebrate the

30:19

tremendous passage of the nineteenth

30:22

Amendment, which we know now more than

30:24

ever hopefully was a big deal and not a

30:26

not a sure thing at any point in time. Let's

30:28

celebrate our right to vote. Let's make sure that we're

30:30

all registered to vote. Let's get your friends

30:33

registered to vote. Let's make sure all the women

30:35

in our lives are exercising that hard

30:37

thought right that we have.

30:40

But let's also not lose sight of the fact that we have some serious

30:42

unfinished business in terms of the Equal Rights

30:44

Amendment. Here here, Emily, I cannot

30:46

agree more. And one of the other things

30:48

I wanted to highlight was y'all

30:51

our four mothers. I know I keep saying this, but

30:53

this was a hard earned right. Are

30:55

we using our ninth Amendment to the best

30:58

of your ability? You might be thinking, but

31:00

Bridget I voted in the presidential election and

31:02

that is awesome. But are you voting in your

31:04

local elections? Are you voting for your school board

31:06

election? Do you know who your sheriff is? Do

31:09

you know all of these things? So, honestly,

31:11

let's let's use these rights that

31:13

our four mothers bought for it. Let's

31:15

use them loudly and proudly and make sure that we're

31:17

living up to what they've given us to the best

31:19

of our ability. I cannot

31:21

have said it better. Bridget Todd, the one

31:23

and only. I love it Alright, sminthy

31:26

listeners, we want to hear from you. What

31:28

do you think about the hard fought battle

31:30

for the nineteenth Amendment and for the unfinished

31:32

business that should be our next

31:35

constitutional amendment, the Equal Rights

31:37

Amendment. Send us a tweet at mom Stuff

31:39

Podcast, leave your comments on our Instagram

31:41

at stuff Mom Never Told You, And as always,

31:43

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31:46

mom Stuff at how stuff works dot com.