What would it take to guarantee women’s right to equal protection of the law under the U.S. Constitution? In 1966, the newly formed National Organization for Women created task forces to work for women’s equality. One of the ambitions of the Task Force on Legal and Political Rights was to support women who invoked their right to equal protection of the law.
The Goal of Equal Protection
The NOW Task Force on Legal and Political Rights outlined initial goals and plans in a 1967 statement. One objective was to encourage women who wanted to fight discrimination using equal protection. The equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment states that no state shall “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” However, the same amendment later specifically refers to male citizens, ensuring the right to vote for all men, including the slaves who were freed shortly before the Reconstruction Amendments were passed.
Many cases over the next one hundred years argued for women’s equality under the equal protection clause, but it was not until 1971 that the Supreme Court applied the 14th Amendment to women’s rights, in the case of Reed v. Reed. In 1967, the Task Force on Legal and Political Rights offered support for any efforts to end sex discrimination, especially in public employment, public education and official government practices.
A Constitutional Guarantee
NOW also supported the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution. ERA passed the House of Representatives and Senate and was sent to the states for ratification in 1972, ultimately falling three states short. The ERA would be a Constitutional guarantee of equality for women, which many feminists felt was necessary since it took more than 100 years to apply the 14th Amendment’s equal protection to women.