ATTACHMENT N

Drafting Daughters?

The Flagstaff Republican Women is perhaps the largest group in Flagstaff opposed to ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. Mrs. Eleanore Wren, president of the organization, summarized their objections:

1. "It is sadly mis-named. Rather than giving "equality" to women, in actuality it would give preferential treatment to men It would force women to leave home and family to work since they would be just as responsible as men for financial maintenance of the home. It could easily render the family "obsolete."

2. "Women would be required to register for the draft at the age of 18. They would be liable for service in all units, including combat duty. This is denied by the "libbers," but is conceded by eminent jurists, as quoted in the Yale Law Journal.)

3. "Alimony would be imposed equally upon both men and women. How could this be construed as "equal" cases where the mother had the care of children?

4. "Present laws covering offenses such as sodomy, adultery, statutory rape, seduction laws, laws prohibiting obscene language in the presence of women, prostitution laws would all, in the opinion of the Yale Law Journal, be of necessity invalidated by the courts as the only alternative to a frustrating attempt to extend them to cover men and women on the same basis.

"Do most women really want to have all the protections inherent in these laws removed? Are they ready for rape to become legal? And separate rest-rooms unconstitutional?

5. "Whatever abuses of the realm of equal pay for equal work exist can be remedied by laws already on the books some federal, some state. These laws have already been tested in certain instances with verdicts favorable to women, verdicts emanating from the "non-discriminatory" clauses in various "civil rights" laws. The ERA is unnecessary and superfluous. 6. "We oppose the principle of further bureaucratic invasion into areas of our lives where the federal government has no business to be and where, according to our Constitution, they have no right to be."

The Yale Law Journal of April, 1971, studied the ERA and drew some conclusions about the legal effects of the amendment. The Phyllis Schlafly Report, published in Fairmount, Ill., condensed the conclusions in the May, 1972 issue into seven points, which were reprinted in the newsletter of The Network of Patriotic Letter Writers of Pasadena, Calif.

The first three points concern the husband's support obligations, rape and draft, which are covered in Mrs. Wren's statement.

4. "ERA will wipe out the right of the mother to keep her Children in case of divorce.

5. "ERA will lower the age at which boys can marry."

6. "ERA will wipe out the protections women now have from

dangerous and unpleasant jobs.

7. "ERA will wipe out women's right to privacy."

"Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-third of each House concurring therein), that the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislature of threefourths of the several states within seven years from the date of its submission by the Congress;

"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."

Thus reads the text of the proposed 27th amendment to the Constitution of the United States, an amendment both strongly supported and opposed by women.

At last count, 30 states had ratified the amendment, with eight still needed before it becomes law. One of the 30 states, Nebraska, has rescinded its ratification, and others are considering doing so, but Mrs. Ellen Hagelberg, local president of the League of Women Voters, said that the U.S. Congress mast approve the actions withdrawing ratification, and she indicated that in previous cases it had not allowed states to change their minds.

Although with the ERA's defeat in the Arizona legislature this year the issue may seem dead, Mrs. Hagelberg indicated the League has hopes of bringing it up again during the next legislative session and trying once again to add the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution.

Arguments for and against the amendment are being made by thoughtful women, and Flagstaff has both sides of the issue represented.

Equality Under Law

The Flagstaff League of Women Voters, headed by Mrs. Elien Hagelberg, is the most vocal group in Flagstaff which supports ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.

In literature distributed by the League, rebuttals are found to opponents of the amendment:

1. According to the Citizens' Advisory Council on the Status of Women, "The rights to support of women and children are much more limited than is generally known and enforcement is very inadequate... the legal obligation to support can generally be enforced only through an action for separation or divorce... 2. The National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Club, Inc., said, "Congress now possess the power lo include women in any military conscription... However, under the Military Selective Service Act of 1967, only male citizens must register for the draft. The amendment would require that this law... be extended to women equally.

"Once in the service, women, like men, would be assigned to various duties by their commanders, depending on their qualifications and the service's needs. Only those persons men or women who can meet the very high physical demands which combat duty imposes would be eligible for such assignments."

3. The League of Women Voters said, "In a divorce, the same principle of need and ability to pay will apply to alimony ander ERA just as it does now. So also with child support." 4. The League of Women Voters also said, "Criminal laws against rape will still be valid (as well as civil laws applying to one sex, such as medical payments for childbirth)."

"The ERA won't interfere with the constitutional right of privacy, which permits separation of the sexes in such public places as public toilets and military barracks."

5. The National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Club, Inc., said "There has been some progress toward equal legal rights for men and women in recent years... Although the Fourteenth Amendment... guarantees "equal protection of the laws," not until 1971 did the Supreme Court strike down a law which discriminated against women....It did not overrule earlier decisions upholding sex discrimination cases in other laws, and it did not hold that sex discrimination is "suspect" under the Fourteenth Amendment."

6. According to the Business and Professional Women's organization, the amendment "will affect only governmental action; the private relationships of men and women are unaffected."

The League of Women Voters has listed some types of discrimination now permitted by law, which they feel the ERA would correct:

1. "A married woman may not obtain credit or establish a business without her husband's signature.

2. "Contribution of the housewife is not given economic valor

in assessing property owned by the husband and wife.

3. "Property rights of married women are restricted; distribution of property at death is not the same for men and women."

4. "A married woman's income is not considered a part of the economic partnership when a couple applies for a mortgage

loan."