#21-24 Women’s Equality USA
Audio documentary about the successful fight for a Constitutional Amendment enshrining US women’s right to vote and the still-pending struggle for an Equal Rights Amendment to the US Constitution. Includes stories about Alice Paul (January 11, 1885 – July 9, 1977), whose work for women bridged both causes.
Host(s): Nahanni Rous
Featured Speakers/Guests: Jennifer Krafchik, Deputy Director of the museum in the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument in Washington, DC; Nevada State Senator Pat Spearman. (In March 2017, Nevada voted to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment– 95 years after it was first introduced to Congress); Nevada State Senator Joe Hardy(ERA opponent); vox pops from the National Mall in Washington DC; Bettina Hager, Director of the Equal Rights Amendment Coalition; Eleanor Smeal, President of the Feminist Majority Foundation and former President of the US National Organization for Women (NOW); Phyllis Schlafly, ERA opponent and founder of Eagle Forum; late US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia; current Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Credits: Adapted for WINGS by Nahanni Rous. Content originally appeared in the series Can We Talk from the Jewish Women’s Archive and was produced by Nahanni Rous, and Judith Rosenbaum; script editor, Ibby Caputo. Can We Talk theme music is by Girls in Trouble. background music: a 1914 suffrage march by Zena Hawn, and a 1918 recording of Johnny Get Your Gun. Photo from Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument.
Comments: Good to air for Women’s Equality Day (US), August 26th – but also good any time.
As of 2024, the required number of states have now ratified the Equal Rights Amendment to the US Constitution; there is a campaign on to override the nearly-unique time limit that Congress imposed, and publish the amendment as passed. Organizations actively working on this campaign include The Young Feminist Party and Equal Means Equal.