Overview

Professor Julie Suk, a distinguished legal scholar, builds off a century of momentum, telling the heroic stories of women who protested, resisted, and persisted to establish their constitutional rights. The year 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing women's constitutional right to vote. But have we come far enough? After the adoption and ratification of the 19th Amendment, a bold group of women proposed the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). It took Congress almost 50 years to adopt it in 1972. The fight for ratification in the states took another 50 years, culminating in Virginia's historic ratification in January 2020. Why did the ERA take so long? Is it too late to add it to the Constitution? And what could it do for women? In We the Women, Suk follows the history of the ERA through the voices of the relentless women who pursued it. For over 100 years, women's efforts to enshrine their rights in the Constitution have faced opposition and subterfuge. And, despite significant gains, the triumphs of gender equality have not met the needs of all women- especially working mothers. Exploring the ERA's past and future, Suk explains hot-button issues such as pregnancy discrimination, violence against women, and unequal pay.

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9781510771789

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Reviews

We talk as if only men make constitutions. Julie Suk changes this. She introduces us to the diverse cast of women constitution makers who supported, and opposed, the Equal Rights Amendment over the last century. Their quest showcases concerns missing in standard accounts of the Founding, and shows us how these concerns differed among women and over time. Essential reading for those interested in the future of gender justice. -REVA SIEGEL, Nicholas deB. Katzenbach Professor, Yale Law School Julie Suk's We the Women is a fascinating and nuanced recounting of the history of the ERA. It brings to light the many women who made constitutional equality for women across generations, highlighting complexities not widely known; documents the unending opposition; and showcases the potential of the ERA's meaning for the twenty-first century. It will soon be recognized as the go-to resource for the ERA's long legislative history. -LOUISE MELLING, Deputy Legal Director, American Civil Liberties Union Meticulously researched and compulsively readable, We the Women draws important connections between the past and present, making clear how, despite long odds and many obstacles, generations of women have come together to debate and demand the conditions necessary for a more perfect union. -MELISSA MURRAY, Frederick I. & Grace Stokes Professor of Law, NYU School of Law In We the Women, Julie Suk shows us that the Equal Rights Amendment at its core was-and still is-about freedom and power. The mothers of the ERA laid the groundwork of the battle waging in this country today, and though this campaign can feel long and arduous, We the Women has left me more hopeful. -FATIMA GOSS GRAVES, President and CEO, National Women's Law Center Smart, readable, incisive. Required reading for anyone who wants to understand why we need the ERA. A must for students, activists, and anyone simply wanting to know the history of this hundred-year long fight. We The Women resurrects a diverse and brilliant cast of ERA foremothers. Suk gives us the ERA America needs right now-an amendment that takes into account the realities of motherhood, sexual harassment, and unequal pay. Suk convincingly persuades us that this essential recognition of women's equal standing in the nation has been denied too long-and is, at long last, within our grasp. -KIRSTEN SWINTH, author of Feminism's Forgotten Fight: The Unfinished Struggle for Work and Family and Professor of History at Fordham University We the Women provides a riveting and nuanced history of women's fight for equality and enfranchisement in the United States. Julie Suk brilliantly threads together early suffragist movements with the continued fight for women's constitutional equality and ratification of the ERA. This timely book should be a companion to all readings on voting rights and in the hands of all students and readers of constitutional law. -MICHELE GOODWIN, Chancellor's Professor, UC-Irvine, and author of Policing the Womb

Every man I know needs to read this book. Every legislator in America needs to read this book. It's a compelling examination of the history of the fight for equal rights in our nation dating back to our earliest days and making an undeniable case for the necessity of the Equal Rights Amendment in the twenty-first century. -ALYSSA MILANO, actress and political activist We talk as if only men make constitutions. Julie Suk changes this. She introduces us to the diverse cast of women constitution makers who supported, and opposed, the Equal Rights Amendment over the last century. Their quest showcases concerns missing in standard accounts of the Founding, and shows us how these concerns differed among women and over time. Essential reading for those interested in the future of gender justice. -REVA SIEGEL, Nicholas deB. Katzenbach Professor, Yale Law School Julie Suk's We the Women is a fascinating and nuanced recounting of the history of the ERA. It brings to light the many women who made constitutional equality for women across generations, highlighting complexities not widely known; documents the unending opposition; and showcases the potential of the ERA's meaning for the twenty-first century. It will soon be recognized as the go-to resource for the ERA's long legislative history. -LOUISE MELLING, Deputy Legal Director, American Civil Liberties Union Meticulously researched and compulsively readable, We the Women draws important connections between the past and present, making clear how, despite long odds and many obstacles, generations of women have come together to debate and demand the conditions necessary for a more perfect union. -MELISSA MURRAY, Frederick I. & Grace Stokes Professor of Law, NYU School of Law In We the Women, Julie Suk shows us that the Equal Rights Amendment at its core was-and still is-about freedom and power. The mothers of the ERA laid the groundwork of the battle waging in this country today, and though this campaign can feel long and arduous, We the Women has left me more hopeful. -FATIMA GOSS GRAVES, President and CEO, National Women's Law Center Smart, readable, incisive. Required reading for anyone who wants to understand why we need the ERA. A must for students, activists, and anyone simply wanting to know the history of this hundred-year long fight. We The Women resurrects a diverse and brilliant cast of ERA foremothers. Suk gives us the ERA America needs right now-an amendment that takes into account the realities of motherhood, sexual harassment, and unequal pay. Suk convincingly persuades us that this essential recognition of women's equal standing in the nation has been denied too long-and is, at long last, within our grasp. -KIRSTEN SWINTH, author of Feminism's Forgotten Fight: The Unfinished Struggle for Work and Family and Professor of History at Fordham University We the Women provides a riveting and nuanced history of women's fight for equality and enfranchisement in the United States. Julie Suk brilliantly threads together early suffragist movements with the continued fight for women's constitutional equality and ratification of the ERA. This timely book should be a companion to all readings on voting rights and in the hands of all students and readers of constitutional law. -MICHELE GOODWIN, Chancellor's Professor, UC-Irvine, and author of Policing the Womb

Author Information

Julie C. Suk is a a professor of sociology, political science, and liberal Studies at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY), where she also serves as the academic dean overseeing the Graduate Center's interdisciplinary master's programs. She is also the Florence Rogatz Visiting Professor of Law at Yale Law School. She has lectured widely in the United States and Europe and has been a visiting fellow at the European University Institute in Florence and LUISS-Guido Carli in Rome. She has a J.D. from Yale Law School, where she studied on a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans and a D.Phil. in Politics from Oxford University, where she held a Marshall Scholarship. Suk is a frequent commentator in the media on legal issues affecting women, including, most recently, the Los AngelesTimes, the Washington Post, PBS, CBS, and other media outlets. She is the author of numerous scholarly articles about women and the law. She lives in New York City.

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