Democratic Party gubernatorial nomination candidate Jennifer Carroll Foy released a statement today on the one-year anniversary of Virginia’s ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.
“Virginians support equal rights for our daughters as well as our sons, and we stand with the national movement to add the Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution,” said Carroll Foy.
“I was proud to lead the fight to ratify the ERA here in the Commonwealth. I’ve been told ‘no’ so many times in my life because of my gender, and I will never stop fighting for a world where women and girls are told ‘yes.’ I am determined to create a world where women can be anything they want, have the same opportunities as men, and are treated as equals.
“On this anniversary, we will not forget the women, years ago, coming together over decades, refusing to suffer in silence as they were discriminated against, paid less, and subjected to gender based violence. So many of those same fights continue today. We still have yet to add the ERA to the Constitution, and I am hopeful, under the Biden Administration and 117th Congress, we finally will.”
The ERA would make discrimination against women unconstitutional and prohibit gender discrimination in areas such as education, equality in pay, and employment. Currently, there is no firm protection against gender discrimination in the Constitution. Without the ERA, women’s rights will only be protected by elected officials and courts that deem them worthy of protection.
If the ERA is added to the Constitution, women will be have stronger protections from pay discrimination, helping to close the wage gap, pregnancy discrimination, making workplaces across the country friendlier to expectant mothers, and more.
Carroll Foy attended Virginia Military Institute in one of the first classes of women, thanks to the Supreme Court case, United States v. Virginia, which forced VMI to admit women to the institution.
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