“Equality of rights. Equality of rights under the law may not be denied or abridged based on the sex of an individual.”

This is a proposed amendment to the Maine Constitution, in LD 197. I am astonished it is not there now, and embarrassed that I’d forgotten it was voted on and defeated in 1984. This merits a “yes” vote in the Maine State Legislature this year, and Maine voters given a chance to vote on this.

In my U.S. History classes at the University of Maine at Farmington, we’ve spoken about the Equal Rights Amendment in the context of the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote. They seem puzzled that a national ERA had never been ratified. I asked them to guess why it failed. They couldn’t imagine. Women in the military, I said, and unisex bathrooms. My students were dumbfounded. They have grown up with these two realities and their world has not collapsed. They need a chance to vote on this issue as voters and residents.

I have written extensively about protective labor legislation for women, which limited hours and conditions for female wage earners. Supporters of this legislation opposed the ERA, fearing that this amendment, if passed, would eliminate these protections. By 1954, Alice Hamilton, a workplace reformer who opposed the ERA in the 1920s, changed her mind about it, noting that women had made sufficient gains in the workplace and that many of these protections were now extended to male workers. Hamilton was 83 years old then and she changed her mind. Surely, Maine residents should be afforded the opportunity to change their minds.

As a feminist who has never felt hampered by being female, I am always stunned by fears about women’s roles in life. The energy put into keeping people from achieving their full potential drains all of us, and it certainly limits the talents of everyone. And we need every person in this society. An ERA in the Maine Constitution helps recognize this need.

I’m not one to promote role models for the sake of diversity, but I am proud to be a female selectperson in our town. I’m also proud that, prior to my election, Woolwich became a selectboard and not simply a board of selectmen. Language matters.

Allison Hepler

Woolwich