Jill was a key member of the Indiana Women's Political Caucus and the Hoosiers for Equal Rights lobbying group. She was, among the many then-middle-aged women, the "youngster" and never failed for mentoring from ALL. She and others, are carrying on, if not the direct fight, the tradition of bringing women's history to the forefront in the 21st centur through the Indiana Women's History Association. Her comments, dated March 22, 2010, follow:
Subject: Re: "Why didn't the ERA pass?"
Primary reason: money.
Even Florida legislators who were elected because they said they would vote for ERA took insurance industry funds and voted no when it came up. Even though women went to the polls to defeat these turncoats, these guys ended up working for insurance companies. Charging women more for life and other insurance was pure profit for these companies and money did the ERA in.
In Illinois the Democratic party, unions were infighting- and yes money was behind that, too. Legislators who normally would have voted for ERA did not because of infighting.
Oklahoma- tons of money in a traditionally conservative state turned the trick. Much of it was insurance money. Considering that women made up less than 10 % of any legislative body at the time also had something to do with it.
Those three states could have given this country constitutional equality of rights for women- they failed. The campaigns for ERA were underfunded and less cohesive than they might have been, but it does not excuse the fact that the predominantly male dominated legislators killed the ERA. Yes, some women legislators voted against it, but they were a minority of women in all bodies. The majority of women legislators voted for it as well as the men in the 35 states. We needed 38 states.
The upside- most young women who did not go through the campaign- or care much about history at all, think it passed and act accordingly.
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