A Modern-day Case For The Equal Rights Amendment
Katica Roy
CEO of Pipeline Equity | Gender Economist | 2020 Colorado Entrepreneur of the Year | Fast Company Impact Council Member | Contributor for Bloomberg, Fast Company, Fortune, WEF & NBC
Welcome to my weekly Q&A feature. (Scroll down to find the Q&A.)?
If this is your first time here, welcome. I spend a fair amount of time speaking at events and conferences. At the end of my presentations, I leave space for audience members to ask questions—tough questions, brave questions, you name it. The level of candor and curiosity always inspires me, and I want to share that sentiment with you. Each week I pick one question that I believe others would find most instructive and publish my response to it here.?
The purpose of this weekly tradition is transparency and inclusion.?
Be Brave?
Is The Equal Rights Amendment Still Relevant Today????
Question:
How would the Equal Rights Amendment improve the equal pay laws that are already present?
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Answer:
The US ranks in 30th place out of 156 countries for gender equity. We have a 17-point gender pay gap and are among the 24% of countries worldwide without a constitutional provision for gender equity.?
We need the ERA because it creates the requisite legal framework to achieve gender pay equity (among other things).?
We need to amend the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the US Constitution to safeguard the full and equitable participation of all people in our country. The ERA would throw the full weight of the Constitution at the barriers that hold people, especially women, back. It would federally protect Americans from all forms of sex discrimination.?
Critics claim the ERA promotes spurious and superfluous guarantees of equity. That we shouldn’t waste precious political capital on amending the ERA. That the laws we already have on the books suffice.?
However, we need the ERA because it creates the requisite legal framework to achieve gender pay equity (among other things).?
领英推荐
Current Pay Equity Laws Don’t Go Far Enough?
We could knit a king-size quilt with all the patchwork pay equity laws at the state and local level. In the past two years:?
We should applaud these recent efforts to improve pay equity. We should also recognize that these laws apply only to specific jurisdictions around the country. And they are just that: laws. Laws that lawmakers can rescind or replace with a vote.?
Now at the federal level, we have the Equal Pay Act and The Civil Rights Act of 1964—both providing a legal avenue for employees to fight back against gender discrimination. Here too we see some issues prop up.?
The ERA’s Impact On Pay Equity
The ERA applies first principles thinking to gender equity. Instead of retrofitting pay equity legislation into an inequitable system, instead of piecemealing together laws that combat discrimination—the ERA would enshrine gender equity into the system. It takes us back to the original design and addresses inequity at the core.?
That last part matters: the ERA takes us back to the original design and addresses inequity at the core.?
If we want to close the gender pay gap, we need to treat the disease, not the symptom. We need to create a system that is equitable by default. Because we can’t close the pay gap by starting with pay.?
The ERA applies first principles thinking to gender equity.
Pay is the quantitative value companies place on their talent. How we evaluate an employee’s performance and potential represents their actual value to the organization. We need a political operating system strong enough to address equity gaps across all stages of the employee lifecycle, across all occupational categories, and across all jurisdictions.?
Curious about something? Ask your question here for a chance to have it answered in an upcoming edition of this newsletter.
This article was first published on my website .
? 2022 Katica Roy?, Inc.
Sales and business development with an emphasis on healthcare
11 个月These recognitions and protections are happening with the vast unfurling of data usage... the protections and servant leadership involved in privacy, transparency and proper oversight issues abound and transcend many issues and disciplines...
Sales and business development with an emphasis on healthcare
11 个月This work matters a lot...
J.D. Candidate | Actress | Born in the Theatre | Latina | MA Political Science Theory | Book Scandianov: A Feminist Utopia | Film Lost in Terra Dimension | Con Esperanza
1 年Amazing ??
I advance #GenderParity in #Leadership | Keynote Speaker | Author, Intentioning: Sex, Power, Pandemics, and How Women Will Take the Lead | Co-founder/Pres, Take The Lead | Diversity/Inclusion, Forbes 50>50
2 年Brilliant take as always Katica Roy.