Even though the United State's population is made up of more females, women are treated as a minority

group and should therefore receive the protections of one. With the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA
hereinafter) not having passed, women have been set back, and until they are considered equal, having quotas
for school and workplace will allow them to strengthen their own individual rights.
Phyllis Schlafly, though she took her beliefs to the extreme, had a few valid points on how the ERA
would have affected the traditional lives of both men and women. Both men and women were accustomed to a
certain lifestyle that included men working outside of the home and being responsible, financially and
otherwise, of the family, while women managed the family at home. The ERA would have turned this concept,
men and womens understanding of their traditional roles, upside down. For example, the ERA would take
away women's traditional exemption from military conscription and also from military combat duty (A Short
History of ERA), and ERA would take away the traditional benefits in the law for wives, widows and
mothers. ERA would make unconstitutional the laws, which then existed in every state, that impose on a
husband the obligation to support his wife (A Short History of ERA). Phyllis Schlafly and her supporters,
simply put, were afraid of the unknown and their ability to fit into this new freedom for women. She felt the
best way to protect herself, her daughter, who could possibly have been drafted, and other women would be to
eliminate the possibility of any change happening at all. What she didnt consider, or rather chose not to
consider, was the fact that there were women who wanted that change and that the Stop ERA movement would
take away any choice that they had.
A woman of the same era, Susan Brownmiller, was a hardcore feminist who supported the ERA. She
wrote Against Our Will, a book showcasing everything wrong about rape and the laws around it. Brownmiller
wrote, the violation [rape] was first and foremost a violation of male possession. Rape was originally
defined as a violation of male property, not as the harassment, violation, or even a theft or property crime
against a woman. Brownmiller fought to show how women are seen as owned by men to the point where a
violation against her is truly viewed as a violation against her owner. The ERA would have helped in
evolving rape laws to the point of being simply the abuse of a woman, not of a mans property, which is in
accordance with her beliefs. Brownmiller understood that women were and could be independent from men

and simply wanted women to have the opportunity to make decisions for themselves and about themselves whether it is the decision to stay at home, to work, to have children, or to decide what to do with their bodies.
Pornography, like rape, is another institution that encourages the state of mind that men have a monetary
right over women; according to Brownmiller, prostitution institutionalizes the concept that it is a mans
monetary right, if not his divine right, to gain access to the female body. Now more than ever men have easy
access to pornography. It is present on the Internet, in magazines, and in movies, but this easy access does not
mean that men use it as a method to keep women in their place. Most pornography is completely legal,
meaning that both parties are of legal age and that both parties are paid for their service, especially since for
most online porn a paid subscription is required. The majority of women in porn are choosing to be there,
whether its to pay their way through school or just as a career. Its hard to use it as a method of hate speech if
the women in it are volunteering to do it. Not to mention that while the majority of porn is targeted toward
men, there is an entire industry devoted to women with the same paid subscriptions that are offered to men. So
while most pornography is aimed toward men and objectifies women, there is also porn that is aimed toward
women and objectifies men. Does that mean that women can use that porn as hate speech toward men? Most
would argue no, and so that same argument should work in favor of women as well. If porn is something
someone is choosing to participate in, it cannot be used as hate speech.
In this era women and men should be treated equally; however, women are still thought of as weak and
inferior. Many believe that in this era women are fairly equal to men, but in reality that isn't true. Why else
would women receive only seventy cents to every dollar a man makes? And yes, women are able to vote and
run for office but that is the biggest step toward equality that has been taken since 1920. Is that bound to be
the future of this country? Only making a change toward equality every century? Equality for women will not
be received until an amendment like the ERA is passed.