The proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which would guarantee American women the full benefits of citizenship, will be the subject of the May 9 meeting of the Lake of the Woods Democratic Club.
The guest speaker will be Diana Egozcue of Fredericksburg, executive vice president of the Virginia Chapter of the National Organization for Women.
The meeting, which is open to all without regard to political affiliation, will begin at 1 p.m. Wednesday, May 9, with a meet-and-greet session in the Lake of the Woods Community Center. The program will commence at 1:30.
The ERA states that the rights guaranteed by the Constitution apply equally to all persons regardless of their sex. After the 19th Amendment affirming women’s right to vote was ratified in 1920, suffragist leader Alice Paul introduced the ERA in 1923 as the next step in bringing “equal justice under law” to all citizens.
In 1972, the ERA was finally passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification. The original seven-year time limit was extended by Congress to June 30, 1982, but at that deadline, the ERA had been ratified by only 35 states, three states short of the 38 required to put it into the Constitution. In March 2017, Nevada became the 36th state to ratify the amendment.
The ERA has been introduced into every Congress since the deadline.
Egozcue has long been involved in the effort to bring the ERA back before the Virginia General Assembly for ratification, resulting in getting sponsors in both the House of Delegates and the state Senate.
Egozcue has a Bachelor of Science in Education from the University of Texas at El Paso and a Master’s degree in Geography from the University of South Florida.
Her earlier life was spent as a teacher and Army wife. She has been married to Joe Egozcue for over 30 years. They have one son and two grandchildren.
Find more information about the ERA at the links below: