The ERA as 28th Amendment: Ann Bartow on Constitutionalizing Women's Rights

Professor Ann Bartow (pictured) argues that the Constitution needs a 28th Amendment - - - the ERA. 

In an article almost as pithy as the ERA itself,  Bartow discusses the history of women's rights, the failed ERA, and why current constitutional law and statutory enactments fail to adequately secure gender equality.  She also invokes current 14th Amendment controversies including so-called "birthright citizenship."

Bartow concludes:

A commitment to equality across gender identification, gonads, chromosomes, or any other maker of sex that is specifically articulated in a Twenty-Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution would productively cut off debates about the Fourteenth Amendment and ignite engagement in projects pitched at increasing substantive equality for all
persons.

Bartow's essay is part of a Constitutional Amendment Symposium by Tennessee Law Review (not yet available on the law review website) that promises some interesting constitutional interventions.

At nine pages, this would make an excellent first assignment for courses in Constitutional Law, Individual Rights, and Gender courses.

RR