Legal & Political Challenges (DP IB History: SL): Revision Note

Summary

• Feminists in the 1960s and 1970s challenged authority by working within legal and political systems to overturn discriminatory laws and expand women's constitutional rights

• Campaigns for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) aimed to amend the Constitution. They represented a direct challenge to federal and state authority and led to national political lobbying

• There were strategic court cases on employment discrimination that used the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Fourteenth Amendment to challenge workplace inequality and expand legal protections

• Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the ACLU Women's Rights Project used carefully selected cases to persuade the Supreme Court to reinterpret the Constitution and establish legal precedents for gender equality

• These legal and political challenges forced governments, employers, and educational institutions to address gender discrimination and contributed to significant changes in law and policy

Lobbying for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)

Background and origins

• The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was originally proposed in 1923 by Alice Paul of the National Woman's Party

  • It gained renewed support during the Second-Wave Feminist Movement of the 1960s

  • Activists were seeking constitutional protection against gender discrimination

• Feminists argued that existing legislation, such as the Civil Rights Act (1964), was not sufficient to protect women's rights because laws could be interpreted differently

  • A constitutional amendment would provide permanent legal equality

• The ERA proposed that equality of rights under the law should not be denied on the basis of sex

  • It would require the federal and state governments to remove discriminatory legislation

Political campaign strategies

• Feminist organisations lobbied members of Congress directly

  • They presented evidence of discrimination in:

    • Employment

    • Education

    • Law

  • They aimed to persuade lawmakers to support constitutional reform

• To demonstrate public support and influence political decision-makers, activists organised:

  • Nationwide letter-writing campaigns

  • Petitions

• Feminists testified before congressional committees

  • They used legal arguments to highlight inequality and justify constitutional reform

• Campaigns were also conducted at the state level

  • Ratification required approval from three-quarters of the state legislatures

Key developments

• In 1972, Congress passed the ERA and sent it to the states for ratification

  • It required approval from 38 states

• Between 1972 and 1977, 35 states ratified the amendment

  • This demonstrated significant political support

• Congress set a deadline of 1979, later extended to 1982, for ratification

Opposition and limitations

• Opposition was led by Phyllis Schlafly, who founded the STOP ERA campaign in 1972

  • She argued that the amendment would undermine traditional gender roles

• Critics claimed the ERA would:

  • Require women to serve in the military

  • Weaken family structures

  • Remove legal protections for women

• Despite strong feminist campaigning, the ERA fell three states short of ratification and ultimately failed in 1982

How the ERA challenged authority

• The ERA campaign represented a direct attempt to amend the Constitution, challenging federal and state authority over gender equality

• Feminists used political lobbying to pressure lawmakers and influence public policy at both the national and state levels

Historiography
Jane Mansbridge
Why We Lost the ERA (1986)
Mansbridge argued that feminist lobbying was effective in gaining political support but ultimately failed to overcome institutional resistance and conservative backlash.

Title IX campaigns

Background and legislation

• Title IX was passed as part of the Education Amendments of 1972 and prohibited sex discrimination in federally funded educational institutions

• The legislation was introduced by Senator Birch Bayh and supported by Representative Patsy Mink, who played a key role in promoting gender equality in education

Feminist campaigns and pressure

• Feminist organisations lobbied Congress to support Title IX and emphasised the issues of educational inequality

• Activists monitored compliance

  • They threatened legal action against institutions that failed to implement the legislation

• Groups such as the National Organization for Women (NOW) and the Women's Equity Action League (WEAL) played key roles in ensuring enforcement

Court cases on employment discrimination

Legal foundations

• Feminists used Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (1964)

  • This prohibited employment discrimination based on sex

• The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment was also used to challenge gender discrimination

• Feminists pressured the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to enforce anti-discrimination laws

Key Supreme Court Cases

Reed v. Reed (1971)

• The case challenged an Idaho law that automatically preferred men over women as estate administrators

• The Supreme Court ruled that this discrimination violated the Equal Protection Clause

  • This was the first time the Court ruled against gender discrimination

Frontiero v. Richardson (1973)

• The case involved a female Air Force officer who was denied spousal benefits available to male officers

• The Supreme Court ruled the policy unconstitutional, expanding legal equality

Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld (1975)

• A widower challenged Social Security rules that denied benefits t

• o men

• The Court ruled that the policy discriminated based on gender

Historiography
Cynthia Harrison

On Account of Sex (1988)
Harrison argued that government institutions, federal agencies, and courts became crucial battlegrounds for women’s rights.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the ACLU Women's Rights Project

Background

• Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a law professor and feminist legal advocate who

  • She was a leading figure in legal challenges to gender discrimination

• In 1972, she founded the ACLU Women's Rights Project to coordinate legal challenges

Strategic litigation

• Ginsburg selected cases carefully to build legal precedent gradually

• She sometimes used male plaintiffs to demonstrate that gender discrimination affected both sexes

Historiography
Jane Sherron De Hart
Ruth Bader Ginsburg: A Life (2018)

• De Hart argues that Ginsburg transformed women’s rights by using the courts as a political arena, making constitutional equality achievable through litigation rather than protest alone.

• She notes that Ginsburg deliberately chose cases involving both male and female plaintiffs to show that gender stereotypes harmed everyone.

Impact

• Ginsburg argued multiple Supreme Court cases during the 1970s

• These cases expanded Equal Protection rights and strengthened legal equality