Editing Equal Rights Amendment (section)

==== Split among feminists ====
Since the 1920s, the Equal Rights Amendment has been accompanied by discussion among [[Feminism|feminists]] about the meaning of women's equality.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sealander |first=Judith |year=1982 |title=Feminist Against Feminist: The First Phase of the Equal Rights Amendment Debate, 1923–1963 |journal=South Atlantic Quarterly |volume=81 |issue=2 |pages=147–161 |doi=10.1215/00382876-81-2-147}}</ref> [[Alice Paul]] and her [[National Woman's Party]] asserted that women should be on equal terms with men in all regards, even if that means sacrificing benefits given to women through protective legislation, such as shorter work hours and no night work or heavy lifting.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cott |first=Nancy |year=1984 |title=Feminist Politics in the 1920s: The National Woman's Party |journal=[[Journal of American History]] |volume=71 |issue=1 |pages=43–68 |doi=10.2307/1899833 |jstor=1899833}}</ref> Opponents of the amendment, such as the [[Women's Joint Congressional Committee]], believed that the loss of these benefits to women would not be worth the supposed gain to them in equality. In 1924, ''The Forum'' hosted a debate between [[Doris Stevens]] and [[Alice Hamilton]] concerning the two perspectives on the proposed amendment.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Modern American Women: A Documentary History |publisher=McGraw-Hill Higher Education |year=1997 |isbn=0-07-071527-0 |editor-last=Ware |editor-first=Susan |chapter=New Dilemmas for Modern Women |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/modernamericanwo00susa_1 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/modernamericanwo00susa_1}}</ref> Their debate reflected the wider tension in the developing feminist movement of the early 20th century between two approaches toward gender equality. One approach emphasized the common humanity of women and men, while the other stressed women's unique experiences and how they were different from men, seeking recognition for specific needs.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/groundingofmoder00cott |title=The Grounding of Modern Feminism |last=Cott |first=Nancy |publisher=Yale University Press |year=1987 |isbn=0-300-04228-0 |author-link=Nancy Cott}}</ref> The opposition to the ERA was led by [[Mary Anderson (labor leader)|Mary Anderson]] and the [[Women's Bureau]] beginning in 1923. These feminists argued that legislation including mandated minimum wages, safety regulations, restricted daily and weekly hours, lunch breaks, and maternity provisions would be more beneficial to the majority of women who were forced to work out of economic necessity, not personal fulfillment.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Other Women's Movement: Workplace Justice and Social Rights in Modern America |last=Cobble |first=Dorothy Sue |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2004 |isbn=0-691-06993-X |location=Princeton, New Jersey |page=[https://archive.org/details/otherwomensmovem0000cobb/page/51 51] |url=https://archive.org/details/otherwomensmovem0000cobb/page/51}}</ref> The debate also drew from struggles between working class and professional women.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Olson |first1=James S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SZK5BwAAQBAJ&pg=PA200 |title=American Economic History: A Dictionary and Chronology |last2=Mendoza |first2=Abraham O. |date=April 28, 2015 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-61069-698-2 |language=en}}</ref> Alice Hamilton, in her speech "Protection for Women Workers", said that the ERA would strip working women of the small protections they had achieved, leaving them powerless to further improve their condition in the future, or to attain necessary protections in the present.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Modern American Women: A Documentary History |last=Dollinger |first=Genora Johnson |publisher=McGraw-Hill Higher Education |year=1997 |isbn=0-07-071527-0 |editor-last=Ware |editor-first=Susan |pages=[https://archive.org/details/modernamericanwo00susa_1/page/125 125–126] |chapter=Women and Labor Militancy |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/modernamericanwo00susa_1 |url=https://archive.org/details/modernamericanwo00susa_1/page/125}}</ref>

The [[National Woman's Party]] already had tested its approach in [[Wisconsin]], where it won passage of the Wisconsin Equal Rights Law in 1921.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Quest for Social Justice III: The Morris Fromkin Memorial Lectures, 1992–2002 |last=McBride |first=Genevieve G. |publisher=University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee |year=2005 |isbn=1-879281-26-0 |editor-last=Boone |editor-first=Peter G. Watson |location=Milwaukee |chapter='Forward' Women: Winning the Wisconsin Campaign for the Country's First ERA, 1921}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s3H087kqzlUC&pg=PA284 |title=Public Women, Public Words: A Documentary History of American Feminism, Volume II: 1900 to 1960 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-7425-2225-1 |editor-last=Keetley |editor-first=Dawn |pages=284–5 |editor-last2=Pettegrew |editor-first2=John}}</ref> The party then took the ERA to Congress, where U.S. senator [[Charles Curtis]], a future [[List of vice presidents of the United States|vice president of the United States]], introduced it for the first time in October 1921.<ref name="BaltSun" /> Although the ERA was introduced in every congressional session between 1921 and 1972, it almost never reached the floor of either the Senate or the House for a vote. Instead, it was usually blocked in committee; except in 1946, when it was defeated in the Senate by a vote of 38 to 35—not receiving the required two-thirds supermajority.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/R42979.html |title=The Proposed Equal Rights Amendment: Contemporary Ratification Issues |website=everycrsreport.com |language=en |access-date=June 3, 2019}}</ref>