On Equality Day, Appleton Area NOW decries new amendment

The Appleton Area National Organization for Women recognized Equality Day on Aug. 26 with a rally at Houdini Plaza.

The group was celebrating the 106th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. While America is celebrating its 250th anniversary, it’s been only 106 years since women first obtained the legal right to vote. That was if they could pay the poll tax and pass the literacy test. Full voting access was not universal until the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

“We know that there's been a war on women, an ongoing assault on our rights, even right here in Wisconsin,” said Irene Strohbeen, President of Appleton Area NOW.  “Many people are not aware of a Wisconsin constitutional amendment that will be on our ballots in November that would strip away rights to equity programs and equal opportunity for women and other marginalized groups right here in Wisconsin.”

Strohbeen stressed that more work was needed to achieve full equal rights and called again for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. 

“It's all about ERA now,” said Strohbeen. “So the proponents, the advocacy groups, are circulating a petition to collect a million signatures of voters to say ‘yes’; we think (the ERA) should be part of the Constitution. It satisfies all of the requirements in the Constitution for an amendment. So do your job.”

Congress first passed the ERA in 1972 and sent it to the states for ratification. The required 38 states voted to ratify the ERA: Nevada in 2017, Illinois in 2018, and Virginia in 2020. This brought the total to the required 38 states.  Either Congress has to extend the deadline to include these three states or pass a resolution confirming that the ERA is fully ratified and now the 28th Amendment of the United States Constitution.

Even while NOW is fighting to achieve long-wished-for objectives, new barriers keep popping up. The latest is the potential passage of the anti-equity amendment this fall, which would, according to Rachel Levine, Vice President of Action for NOW, “effectively cripple the government programs and funding required to support the work of righting social inequities for women and people of color in Wisconsin.” 

Levine said she’s worried that the language in the amendment will be confusing to voters.

“This amendment is written so that at first glance it seems to support equity in our state,” she said. “A closer reading of the referendum shows that this amendment would make it illegal to have state government programs that purposely support women and people of color. Organizations that receive state funding and companies that contract with the state could also have to comply with this ban.”

She said NOW will be spreading the word and urging voters to reject the amendment. 

More information about the anti-equity proposed constitutional amendment is available from Appleton Area NOW and the League of Women Voters.  Both are strongly urging a No vote.

Representative Bella Abzug (1920 – 1998) first designated the observance in 1971, and Congress formally passed a joint resolution in 1973 recognizing August 26 as Women's Equality Day.