Washington, March 23: After a 49-year struggle, American women have at last won Congressional endorsement of a Constitution amendment which would give them absolute equality with men before the law. The Senate yesterday approved the historic equal rights amendment by an overwhelming majority of 84 to eight. The Lower House having already voted passage (a two-thirds majority in each chamber was needed) the measure now goes to the States for ratification. Thirty-eight of the 50 States have to ratify it within the next seven years in order to make it the 27th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but this is expected to be achieved well within that time. A key paragraph in the amendment says that "equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the U.S. or by any of the States on account of sex". The amendment bestows new rights and responsibilities on women, but American feminist organisations themselves had wanted both the good and the bad which went with equal rights. The amendment wipes out laws limiting the type of jobs women may take, eliminates those which restrict women's right to handle property and start businesses in an equal basis with men, ends discriminatory practices in the matter of hirings and promotions in some States and local governments and in educational institutions and ensures equal punishment for certain types of crimes.
