[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 43 (Tuesday, March 18, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Page S3902]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. KENNEDY (for himself, Mrs. Murray, Ms. Cantwell, Mr. 
        Corzine, Mr. Dayton, Mr. Dodd, Mr. Kerry, Mr. Lieberman, Mr. 
        Schumer, Ms. Stabenow, Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Durbin, Ms. Landrieu, 
        Mr. Harkin, Mr. Feingold, Mr. Sarbanes, Ms. Mikulski, Mrs. 
        Feinstein, and Mrs. Boxer):
  S.J. Res. 11. A joint resolution proposing an amendment to the 
Constitution of the United States relative to equal rights for women 
and men; to the Committee on the Judiciary.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, today, Senators Murray, Cantwell, 
Corzine, Dayton, Dodd, Kerry, Lieberman, Schumer, Stabenow, Clinton, 
Durbin, Landrieu, Harkin, Feingold, Sarbanes, Mikulski, Feinstein, 
Boxer and I are re-introducing the Equal Rights Amendment to the 
Constitution. In doing so, we reaffirm our strong commitment to equal 
rights for men and women.
  Adoption of the ERA is essential to guarantee that the freedoms 
protected by our Constitution apply equally to men and women. From the 
beginning of our history as a Nation, women have had to wage long and 
difficult battles to win the rights that men possess automatically 
because they are male. In 1920, we amended the Constitution to 
guarantee women the right to vote, and we must do so again to eliminate 
discrimination against women. A constitutional amendment is necessary 
to do so, because existing statutory prohibitions against 
discrimination have clearly failed to give women the assurance of 
equality with men.
  Despite passage of the Equal Pay Act and the Civil Rights Act in the 
1960s, discrimination against women continues to permeate the workforce 
and the vast majority of areas of the economy. Today, women earn less 
than 75 cents for each dollar earned by men, and the gap is even 
greater for women of color. In the year 2000, African American women 
earned just 64 percent of the earnings of white men, and Hispanic women 
earned only 52 percent. Women with college and professional degrees 
have achieved advances in a number of professional and managerial 
occupations in recent years--yet more than 60 percent of working women 
are still clustered in a narrow range of traditionally female, 
traditionally low-paying occupations, and female-headed households 
continue to dominate the bottom rungs of the economic ladder.
  The routine discrimination that so many women so often face proves 
that there is still a need for the ERA today. A bolder effort is 
clearly needed to enable Congress and the States to live up to our 
commitment of full equality. The ERA alone cannot remedy all 
discrimination, but it will clearly strengthen the ongoing efforts of 
women across the country to obtain equal treatment.
  We know from the failed ratification experiences of the past that 
achieving the ERA's adoption will not be easy. But its extraordinary 
significance requires us to continue the battle. I urge my colleagues 
to approve the ERA in this Congress, and join the battle for 
ratification in the States. Women have waited long enough for full 
recognition of their equal rights by the Constitution.
  I ask unanimous consent that the text of our joint resolution be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the joint resolution was ordered to be 
printed in the Record, as follows:

                              S.J. Res. 11

       Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
     United States of America in Congress assembled, That the 
     following article is proposed as an amendment to the 
     Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to 
     all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when 
     ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several 
     States:

                              ``Article --

       ``Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be 
     denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on 
     account of sex.
       ``Section 2. Congress shall have the power to enforce this 
     article by appropriate legislation.
       ``Section 3. This article shall take effect two years after 
     the date of ratification.''.

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