Letter to the editor published in the Daily Gazette on Women’s Equality Day, August 26. 2024:

A reminder from the LWV: Women are no longer property

The League of Women Voters was founded in 1920, the year (most) women got the right to vote with the hard-fought passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. We soon realized that voting was not enough to ensure equality and, in 1923, pivoted to campaigning for an Equal Rights Amendment. It’s bad enough that the ERA – guaranteeing women’s rights under the U.S. Constitution – has not been codified over the last century but . . . now, there are those who would strip women – and other oppressed groups – of what rights they do have.

Women across this nation should be alarmed. For themselves, their daughters, and granddaughters. For their country. SCOTUS already reversed decades of Roe v. Wade protecting the right to abortion. Now the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank, has produced a 920-page step-by-step playbook, titled Project 2025, for enacting draconian measures such as these:

• Eradicate reproductive rights, including abortion and contraception, no exceptions

• Correlate women’s voting rights with motherhood and socially shame childless women

• Dismantle the Department of Education, along with Title VII and Title IX

• Ban mention of “critical race theory” and “gender ideology” from schools

• Eliminate labor protections (including unions and child labor restrictions) while deregulating corporations

• Eliminate programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Head Start

There have also been policy proposals for head-of-household voting only. And you can buy Repeal the 19th Amendment merchandise online. These are not to be taken lightly. All have a significant impact on women, especially lower-income and minority women.

We must raise our voices for “liberty and justice for all” on a national scale. And in New York State this November, voters have the opportunity to approve Proposition 1, the NY ERA, to codify not only reproductive rights but the civil rights of all marginalized groups.

We have waited long enough for justice. Women’s Equality Day, August 26 as designated by President Nixon, has remained a token gesture because there’s no political will to align women’s rights with the rights of men. And now, there are political agendas that would roll back women’s rights even more. Let us remember that women were once classified as “property” in this nation. We didn’t fight this hard for this long to be treated as objects again. We encourage you to vote YES on Proposition 1. And continue to fight for liberty and justice for all. It’s what every American deserves.

Linda McKenney, Co-President, Saratoga County LWV, Gansevoort

Ann Marie Pendergast,Co-President, Saratoga County LWV, Greenfield Center

MaryKate Owens, President, Albany County LWV. Albany

Tiffani T. Silverman, President, Rensselaer County LWV, Troy

Cheryl Nechamen, President, Schenectady County LWV, Schenectady