The Equal Rights Amendment would likely harm women’s equality over current law and, especially, over alternative versions of an ERA that could be proposed. My pessimism is based on how the Supreme Court treats race under the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause. The Court imposes a rule of “colorblindness,” a duty to ignore race, which prevents government from addressing racial inequality because doing so requires attention to race. The ERA would likely cause the Court to impose a rule of sex-blindness, preventing sex-conscious policies to reduce sex inequality.
Citation
Kim Forde-Mazrui, The ERA’s Threat to Sex Equality, The Gender Policy Report (July 14, 2020).