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Destie Hohman Sprague is the executive director of the Maine Women’s Lobby. Nancy Murdock is co-founder of Equal Rights Maine.
Everyone should be equal under the law. We recognize and celebrate one milestone toward equality each year on Women’s Equality Day — this year, the 104th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote — though women of color and Indigenous women waited many more decades to secure that right.
When it comes to gender equity, we live in a time of contradictions. A major political party just nominated a Black woman for the office of the president. Maine just received an “A” grade on the national gender parity index, due in part to Maine’s gender-balanced Legislature, with seven of 12 legislative leadership seats filled by women, and a woman in the Office of the Governor.
But to look simply at these numbers is to overlook the fact that in some ways, women’s rights are going backward. Our own eyes and experiences make it clear that we have not yet achieved the equality we dream of. Women in Maine are more likely to live in poverty, still make between 66 cents and 88 cents for every $1 a white man makes, and experience dramatically higher rates of sexual harassment, violence and murder. Birthing units across the state are shuttering rapidly, degrading women’s health across rural Maine and contributing to our perinatal health crisis. And on virtually every measure, the added burden of racism, homophobia and ableism means that the outcomes are worse for women who are also part of historically excluded groups.
Legal standing with full citizenship is a right many women may take for granted in Maine. However, the state is not currently required to maintain this legal protection. Neither the U.S. or Maine’s Constitutions protect people from discrimination based on their identities. Despite extensive civil rights protections in the Maine Human Rights Ordinance, these persistent inequalities prove difficult to shift, and changes in laws or judicial procedures can threaten the legal status many enjoy — a fact that has been made all too clear in the years since Roe v. Wade was overturned. Unraveling these disparities will require more than policy change. Still, policy solutions can make a real difference, and a Maine Equal Rights Amendment is one of them.
By amending the state’s constitution to protect from discrimination based on gender, and all of the protected classes in the Maine Human Rights Act, we can enshrine protections into our founding documents, and reaffirm our state’s commitment to the equality of all people.
An amendment to our Constitution can shift the needle in ways that changing a law simply can’t. It could clarify that all Mainers who are harmed by identity-based discrimination are equally protected and valued under the law. It could offer protections where the Maine Human Rights Act is silent, specifically around gender-based violence. It could create a new path to address gender-based pay inequity, which has actually been exacerbated by COVID-19. Finally, it could create avenues for justice and accountability that currently fall short. Constitutional protection would require the State of Maine to take more actions to address long standing and ongoing inequalities, which is why nearly half of all states have undertaken this commitment and included such amendments in their own constitutions.
Maine activist Lois Galgay Reckitt, a legislator who passed away in 2023, worked tirelessly for the ERA, though she was not able to realize it in her lifetime. During this week of Women’s Equality Day, we honor her memory by recognizing that this work is not done, and committing to carrying it forward. It’s time to demand more than a passing grade in an annual scorecard. It’s time to pass an Equal Rights Amendment, and bring the voice of Mainers into the process to infuse the dream of equity into our state’s founding document.
