(2 of 2)
The opposition has not given up. Groups such as the Daughters Already Well-Endowed, Women Who Want to be Women and the League of Housewives, which claims 20,000 members, object that the amendment is in conflict with woman's most important role as housewife and mother. Phyllis Schlafly, author of A Choice Not an Echo, a book boosting the 1964 presidential campaign of Barry Goldwater, is still giving speeches around the country as head of a group called Stop ERA. The John Birch Society has its nationwide staff of 90 men churning out arguments against the amendment. Sample headline for a Birch pamphlet: LOOK OUT! THEY'RE PLANNING TO DRAFT YOUR DAUGHTER! Says Birch Society Official Wallis Wood: "It's a very emotional issue—almost like sex education was five years ago."
Alimony Laws. One sensible though not conclusive argument against the ERA comes from Paul Freund, the distinguished constitutional law expert at Harvard Law School. Freund has written that equality would be more effectively brought about by simply changing individual laws and outlawing specific discriminatory practices. "If three-fourths of the states are prepared to ratify the amendment," he argues, "it is hard to see why they must first admonish themselves to do justice before they do justice." The difference, he points out, between a constitutional amendment and writing laws that eliminate sexist practices "resembles that in medicine between a single broad-spectrum drug with uncertain and unwanted side effects and a selection of specific pills for specific ills."
If the ERA is indeed approved by the states, it will go into effect two years after ratification. The amendment will not repeal any law or invalidate any regulation already on the books. It will, however, provide a basis for challenging existing laws and sexist practices. Hence so-called protective labor legislation for women, such as state laws limiting working hours or the amount of weight a female worker can lift, may be broadened to extend to men or be dropped altogether. Alimony laws could be written in terms of marital contribution and ability to pay, rather than the sex of the spouse. If the draft is reinstated, men or women will be able to challenge men-only conscription laws.
Prospects for passage of the ERA look reasonably good this year. "We'll do it," says Ann Scott, legislative vice president of NOW. "I think this is the year," insists Douglas Bailey of Bailey, Deardourff & Eyre. Opponents of the ERA like Schlafly do not agree; but, said she last week, "I don't have a crystal ball."