WEBINAR
MINNESOTA ERA: HOW TO PASS IT!!
An important message from Jackie Falk, AAUW Duluth’s Public Policy Officer
At the national, state, and local level, AAUW is partnering with many other organizations—including the League of Women Voters–to bring the Equal Rights Amendment to fulfillment. (Find a summary of talking points here: https://eracoalition.org/uploads/2023/05/General-TPs-January-2023.pdf )
Nationally, 38 states have ratified the Equal Rights Amendment to our United States Constitution. But a difficult problem remains: 80% of Americans believe that women already have equal rights. WE DO NOT.
We never give up on our own value or the value of all, and so we buckle up to continue the work.
We will not have full citizenship rights in this country, I believe, until we can enter the courtroom with full standing.
We won’t have full standing until we are written into the Constitution, Federal and State.
National AAUW is in a coalition with other organizations to pursue amending the Federal Constitution.
AAUW, Duluth Branch is in a coalition with ERA MN to pursue amending the Minnesota Constitution.
Below is ERA MN’s statement of our recent gains toward a Minnesota ERA. Watch for plans for how we continue.
We ended the legislative session no doubt exhausted, a bit battered and bruised but satisfied that, with our allied partners, we certainly accomplished a great deal. We came much closer to the finish line than ever before. However, we are a resilient bunch and are already launching plans for the next session.
The attention Minnesota (and other states pursuing constitutional amendments) bring to bear on the critical importance of states’ actions post-Dobbs cannot be understated.
Our biggest accomplishment: passing inclusive ERA through both the MN House & Senate in the same biennium – albeit with some differing language. In 2023 the ERA passed through the Senate 43 -23 using the Nevada language. In 2024 ERA passed through the House with robust and inclusive language that included reproductive language.
Greatly expanded our coalition of state players – widening this coalition is definitely something we are continuing to build on. We are working to have allied organizations actively list the ERA as their top legislative priority.
The ERA received unprecedented press coverage statewide and nationally. Minnesota’s major publication’s editorial board came out publicly and pointedly said the voters should decide.
On a grassroot level – We had huge growth in the numbers of activists that showed up. We were too loud to ignore and in numbers too large to ignore. Consistently. Thank you!
Going into the next legislative session we have put the ERA at the top of the agenda at last!