Equal Rights Amendment

Equal Rights Amendment
ERA protesters

The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is the 27th amendment to the United States Constitution. It guarantees equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex.

History

Background

After the Soviet Union had landed a woman, Anastasia Belikova, on the Moon in September 1969, the call for women's rights rose all over the world. Belikova instantly became a global icon and an image of inspiration to women and girls all around the globe. This led to President Nixon ordering NASA to match with the Soviets by also landing a female astronaut on the Moon, and to NASA's female astronaut program, starting in January 1970.

In the following months and years, awareness for better women's rights and the call for equal rights became more prominent, with many protests all over the USA. When Molly Cobb became the first American woman to fly to the Moon in October 1971, she became an icon of that movement.

In the 1972 presidental election, the ERA became the major topic in the campaign of Ted Kennedy, who promised to ratify the ERA to guarantee equal treatment under the law.

Ratification

The ERA was ratified on August 24, 1974 when the state of Illinois became the 37th state to ratify it in a very close vote. Supporters of the amendment had previously written off Illinois, but in a surprising turn, Republican governor Richard Ogilvie had stated his support of the amendment the year before.

Influence by the Kennedy administration

At the same day the Equal Rights Amendment was ratified, Apollo 23 exploded on its launch pad at Cape Kennedy. In a report on that incident, issued by former NASA director and Saturn rocket chief designer Wernher von Braun, he revealed that a change in the supply chain of NASA's contractors and subcontractors, happening early 1973, was the cause of the failing LH2 valve of the rocket's second stage and its subsequent explosion. The malfuncioning valve was manufactured by a company located in Rockford, Illinois, while von Braun had given it to a company in Colorado Springs in the mid 60s. Von Braun found out, that the huge and lucrative NASA contract was given to a company in a key district which that state's governor needed for re-election, and therefore was only moved for political reasons, as the new administration of Ted Kennedy needed the support of that governor for passing the ERA. The report was classified and buried by Harold Weisner, the NASA administrator under Kennedy at that time.

Gallery

Anastasia Belikova in the news

ERA protests in the USA

T-shirts worn on Apollo 15 launch day

Crowd watching ERA ratification on TV in the Outpost

TV coverage of ratification

People celebrating the ratification

Article in Houston Sentinel in Summer 1980

Behind the scenes

In the real world the ERA was never ratified and never became an amendment as it did not have the number of states to reach before it's deadline. In OTL, the 27th amendment is the Congressional Compensation Act of 1789. It prohibits any law that increases or decreases the salary of members of Congress from taking effect until after the next election of the House of Representatives has occurred and was added to the constitution on May 5, 1992.

Illinois' governor Richard B. Ogilvie was in office from 1969 to 1973 only.

See also

• Kirkland Aerospace
• Women Astronauts Program

External links

  Equal Rights Amendment on Wikipedia