In Support of the Equal Rights Amendment

The basic premise of the Equal Rights Amendment is that sex shouldnot be a factor in determining the legal rights of women, or of men. Mostof us, I think, agree with this fundamental proposition. For example,virtually everybody would consider it unjust and irrational to provide bylaw that a person could not go to law school or be admitted to the practiceof law because of his or her sex. The reason is that admission to the barought to depend upon legal training, competence in the law, moralcharacter, and similar factors. Some women meet these qualifications andsome do not; some men meet these qualifications and some do not. Butthe issue should be decided on an individual, not a group, basis. The factof maleness or femaleness should be irrelevant. This remains true whetheror not there are more men than women who qualify. It likewise remainstrue even if there be no women who presently qualify, because womenpotentially qualify and might do so under different conditions ofeducation and upbringing. The law, in short, owes an obligation to treatfemales as persons, not statistical abstracts.