Dear Future President,

Congratulations on the election. It was a tough political season, but I  hope being President is everything you hoped! Obviously being president of a country is a lot of work that involves having to please millions of people. Although, you get a lot more power to fix issues. An issue I believe is very important is that women still aren't getting the same rights as men so, I looked into the topic. Did you know that the on March 22, 1972 Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment and sent it to be ratified by the states but, it fell short by 3 votes and was not passed. The Equal Rights Amendment, or the ERA was a proposed amendment to guarantee women equal rights as men. It contains 3 sections and would be put into effect 2 years after ratification. My opinion on this topic is that it should be ratified because women should be guaranteed the same rights as men, and put into the U.S. Constitution.

If the Equal Rights Amendment is passed, many things could possibly change, things that people thought were already equal. A basic change that will be made is women will actually be included into the constitution. According to equalrightsamendment.org without the ERA men and women often fight long legal battles to prove their rights are equal to the other sex, so it would also provide a clearer judicial standard for cases against sex discrimination.

Some might argue that the ERA should not be passed because women already legally have the same rights as men, so nothing would be different and that they are equal because of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that causes all federal and state courts to make all laws that treat men and women differently invalid. If women and men are equal, then why is there a wage gap because of gender? According to the Huffington Posts article about the AAUW’s research, a woman makes 23 cents less for doing the same work as a man. Race also affects the pay gap, Latino and African-American woman get paid even less in the gender pay gap.

I understand that to add an amendment to the U.S. Constitution ⅔ states have to ratify it, so it's not in your power to pass it. Although, it has been 44 years since the ERA was sent to the states in 1972 and fell 3 states short. In my opinion the world has evolved a lot since then and we have different leaders. Possibly by sending the ERA back to the states it could be ratified. Hope you have a great term or possibly terms!

Sincerely,

Seya G.