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RESOLUTION R-1819-55: A RESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NORMAN, OKLAHOMA, SUPPORTING THE RATIFICATION OF THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT AND URGING THE OKLAHOMA STATE LEGISLATURE TO RATIFY THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT DURING THE 2019 LEGISLATIVE SESSION.
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BACKGROUND: A request was made to prepare a Resolution urging the Oklahoma State Legislature to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment during the 2019 Legislative Session.
DISCUSSION: Equal rights activist and women suffrage leader Alice Paul first drafted the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1923 and amended the language in 1943 to model it after the language of the Nineteenth Amendment. The Equal Rights Amendment was passed by Congress in 1972 and sent to the states for ratification. Only 35 of the required 38 states ratified it by the time the continued deadline expired in 1982.
Advocates of the Equal Rights Amendment argue that Congress can alter the original time limits by a majority vote. Nevada became the 36th state to ratify the Amendment on March 22, 2017, and Illinois became the 37th state to ratify the Amendment on May 30, 2018. The proposed Amendment provides that equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account of sex.
The proposed Resolution affirms that the City of Norman supports equal rights for the citizens of Norman and acknowledges that women continue to confront a lack of political parity, workplace discrimination, health care inequities, and disparate rates of poverty, rape, and domestic violence assaults. The proposed Resolution also acknowledges that the only explicit reference to equal protection in the United States Constitution is contained in the right to vote clause of the Nineteenth Amendment. The proposed Resolution also acknowledges that state laws regarding sex discrimination are not uniform, that federal laws are not comprehensive, and that legislative protection...
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