Why it matters that Hillary is a woman: American's failed to pass the Equal Rights Amendment

Has it been so long ago that we don't remember, or more particularly white women over 40 don't remember, that women were formally denied a guarantee of equal rights by legislators in 15 states, that in 1972 Congress (yes there was a time Congress could accomplish meaningful things) submitted to the states a proposed Equal Rights Amendment that said...

Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.

...and that American's failed to secure approval of this simple protection of women's rights in their state legislatures. By 1980 the Republican Party had removed support for equal rights for women from its Platform while nominating Ronald Reagan.

It would be easy to say men were responsible for the failure, but click on the picture below to find out how women failed their daughters and granddaughters who now find themselves making headlines like this U.S. women take a stand over pay equity, sending ripples through soccer's world:

Hillary Clinton represents America's chance to symbolically ratify the ERA.

She is not a strong male politician, as she admitted in the video above, and just because she has had both some remarkable successes and failures in government as a United States Senator doesn't make her part of "The Establishment." After all United States Senators Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders ran against "The Establishment."

Yet her candidacy for President is considered vulnerable. Against Donald Trump?!?!?

What's disturbing is that not only is Phyllis Schlafly alive, apparently her spirit is still alive and well among white American women:

Click on image to see a larger version!

A remarkable 42.7% of white women polled said they would vote for Donald Trump! Only 36% said they would vote for Hillary Clinton. Heck 32% of white men said they would vote for Hillary Clinton.

Yes, I know that a majority of white women voters have backed all Republican nominees since 1996. But none of the Democratic candidates were women and none of the Republican candidates were as blatantly misogynistic as Donald Trump.

And the kicker is that breaking it down by age the results are for white women over 40 are: ages 40 to 49 - 45%; ages 50 to 59 - 46%; and ages 60 and older - 46%. All these women were alive when the Equal Rights Amendment was rejected!

And the results can't be chalked up to right-wing Republican beliefs. Trump, once a registered Democrat, doesn't resemble an Evangelical Christian, a traditional fiscal conservative, a Libertarian, or Family Values advocate. He's a billionaire son of a New York City real estate developer which certainly makes him part of some kind of economic "Establishment." He has been married numerous times. He's expressed weird feelings about his daughter.

What about him would make two out of five white women say they would vote for him rather than a white woman who has a daughter and a granddaughter???

In the 1970's I didn't get Phyllis Schlafly. It never occurred to me that in 2016 about 43% of white women would choose to reinforce her radical anti-feminist views. A Donald Trump, yes, but....