Why was the Equal Rights Amendment not ratified?

[Arnold_Winkelried]

@TriPolar

Ok guys, why doesn’t the equal protection clause rule out gender discrimination?

I am no legal expert, but I think the answer is this: nowadays we interpret it to rule out gender discrimination, but the 14th amendment doesn’t explicitly say it. Which is why people like Justice Scalia think you can justify an argument that the amendment is not meant to guarantee the equivalent of the ERA.

[Lynn_Bodoni]

@TriPolar

That sounds something like community property (IANA lawyer, don’t know the exact definition of community property). But are you saying your grandmother could not have sold property jointly owned by your grandfather without his permission?

Grandma could not have sold HER property without HIS permission. And this was not community property, for some reason, it was definitely not jointly owned. But Grandpa was able to sell it anyway, because he was her husband.

@medstar

Lynn, do you know if your grandfather ever admitted it was wrong of him to sell the property? Did your grandmother ever retaliate against him for that? I know that when I was a teenager (about 35 years ago), my mother was angry that my father didn’t legally have to list her as a beneficiary of his pension (but did, because she yelled at him until he did). That was when she became in favor of the ERA.

On the contrary, Grandpa maintained that he was the man, and that his judgement was better than hers because he was male and she was female, and that it was his right to sell that property no matter what she wanted.

And I became a feminist because of this and other things that I’ve seen and experienced in my lifetime.

[Captain_Amazing]

@Lynn_Bodoni

Grandma could not have sold HER property without HIS permission. And this was not community property, for some reason, it was definitely not jointly owned. But Grandpa was able to sell it anyway, because he was her husband.

What year was this? Because as early as around the turn of the century in Texas, if the property was acquired by her before her marriage, it was hers, and he had no legal right to sell. Likewise, if the property had been bought by money of hers before her marriage.

[Lynn_Bodoni]

I believe it was in the 1960s.

[Schnitte]

This page gives a summary of Texan law relating to the property of married women. Seems that until 1967, a husband would have a great deal to say in the way his wife managed her property, and he could even conclude employment contracts on her behalf, but he did not have the power to dispose of her property without her consent.

[Lynn_Bodoni]

Well, I guess her lawyer was mistaken, then. Or her lawyer thought that Grandpa knew best, which was a pretty common notion back then, that the husband knew best.

[Frylock]

@Lynn_Bodoni

Well, I guess her lawyer was mistaken, then. Or her lawyer thought that Grandpa knew best, which was a pretty common notion back then, that the husband knew best.

It’s more important in this conversation to note what the actual practices were rather than what the laws said. Your story may be very illustrative of the former.

[Lynn_Bodoni]

Yeah, I guess you’re right. I mean, supposedly non-whites were legally equal to white people during this time frame, but even as a kid, I noticed that the non-whites didn’t get equal treatment in practice. And a lot of white people were OK with this. Not all whites, probably not even most, but a lot of them.