Equal Means Equal: The Case for Recognizing the ERA as the 28th Amendment

by Jessica Neuwirth

Overview

A fully revised and updated tenth anniversary edition of the book that former Congresswoman Carlyn Maloney says “clearly and eloquently lays out the issues at stake”—from the founder of the ERA Coalition, with an intro by the women’s rights’ icon

When the Equal Rights Amendment passed Congress in 1972, Richard Nixon was president, and All in the Family’s Archie Bunker was telling his wife Edith to “stifle it.” Over the next decade, a groundswell of support led to ratification by thirty-five states—just three short of the thirty-eight needed. With the original publication of Equal Means Equal ten years ago, a new ERA Coalition emerged, uniting the wisdom of veteran activists with the digital savvy and momentum of a new generation.

Now, thirty-eight states have ratified the ERA, it has met all the constitutional requirements for an amendment, and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley and Senator Lisa Murkowski have introduced a bipartisan, bicameral resolution; yet, due to a disputed deadline for ratification, it still has not been formally recognized. In this fully revised and updated tenth-anniversary edition, Jessica Neuwirth—founder and former president of the ERA Coalition—explains the current state of the Amendment and lays out the ever greater need for the Amendment through powerful contemporary legal cases and real-world examples. From pay inequity and pregnancy discrimination to violence against women, Neuwirth demonstrates how the lack of constitutional gender equality continues to harm women in the post-Roe era.

In this “vital primer” (Kansas City Star), endorsed by Jimmy Carter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, along with many others, Jessica Neuwirth makes the case “that ratification is the right thing to do” (Kirkus Reviews).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798893850178
Publisher:	New Press, The
Publication date:	03/17/2026
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Jessica Neuwirth is the co-founder and former president of the ERA Coalition, a co-founder of the international women’s rights organization Equality Now, and director of Frontline Women’s Fund. She is the Rita E. Hauser Director of the Human Rights Program at Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute/Hunter College and lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Foreword Gloria Steinem xi

Introduction 1

Pay Inequity 15

Pregnancy Discrimination 33

Violence Against Women 51

Discriminatory Laws 71

The New ERA 91

Additional Resources

Appendix 1 Equal Rights Amendment Texts and Related Legislation 107

Appendix 2 Websites for Action and Further Reading 109

Appendix 3 The First National Women's Conference, Houston 1977 113

Appendix 4 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) 127

Notes 145

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Equal Means Equal:
“Neuwirth makes a good case that ratification is the right thing to do.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“A vital primer . . . Neuwirth’s easy-to-digest chapters lay out the reasons the amendment is needed and the current state of gender equality rulings in the courts.”
—The Kansas City Star

“Equal Means Equal clearly articulates why we still need the ERA. It’s high time we put women into the Constitution once and for all, and I support the efforts of the ERA Coalition to make that happen.”
—Meryl Streep

“I would really like to see the women’s movement and the Carter Center and others reinitiate the effort to pass the Equal Right’s Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”
—Jimmy Carter, 39th president of the United States

“Women have recently begun to reenergize the Equal Rights Amendment. Who in the world would be against the ERA?”
—Dr. E. Faye Williams, president of the National Congress of Black Women

“This book makes an eloquent and compelling case for an Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Most countries in the world already have constitutional sex equality provisions. This is a fundamental human rights issue, and the American women and men working for the ERA have my wholehearted support.”
—Navi Pillay, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

“The time is right for the ERA and a new movement of women and men, Democrats and Republicans alike, to put this fundamental right into our Constitution. Equal Means Equal clearly and eloquently lays out the issues at stake and will be an essential tool for the movement.”
—Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney

From the Publisher

2014-10-15
A legal manifesto to revive the campaign for the Equal Rights Amendment.The ERA came so close to ratification so long ago that some readers might think it has already been passed, while others might wonder whether it's still necessary. As the founder of Equality Now, Neuwirth writes, "The goal of this book is to help women and men get fired up enough about the absence of this fundamental human right to put it into the Constitution once and for all." She shows how much momentum the movement originally had and how close it came to passage (three states short of the necessary 38 by its 1982 deadline, after Congress had passed it to overwhelming public support in 1972) and how conservative resistance raised fears of things that have already transpired even without the ERA: "What were the fears at the time? Fear of women in combat, fear of unisex bathrooms, fear of gay rights, and the unimaginable prospect of same-sex marriage all fed the flames." Yet the disparity of wages for workers of different gender doing the same work has yet to be corrected, and pregnancy remains cause for employment termination according to some courts. Furthermore, violence against women, hardly a focus of the original campaign, has become even more of a hot-button issue. This book is mainly a summary of court decisions, in the states and at the Supreme Court, which isn't likely to get readers fired up about much of anything, and the conclusion finds the author admitting that "the way our Constitution works, we cannot say with certainty what exactly the ERA will or won't do for women who are hoping it will end sex discrimination." Neuwirth makes a good case that ratification is the right thing to do, but her matter-of-fact style won't do much to rally the troops.

Kirkus Reviews