On the 4th anniversary of the Declaration of the National Emergency for Covid Response, the state of Mississippi passed HB-1607. On March 13, 2024 Mississippi legislatures incorporated the Women’s Bill of Rights into their State Constitution.
There are currently only four states in the country that recognize women as having equal rights to men, Constitutionally: Iowa, Georgia, West Virginia and now Mississippi. This means that each of those States’ Constitutions have amended language that incorporates a Women’s Bill of Rights into it.
I remember when I learned that the United States Constitution didn’t have a Women’s Bill of Rights and that women, in fact, did not enjoy the same rights as men. “Why didn’t someone try to amend the Constitution to give women equal rights? After all they were given the right to vote in 1920 so why not just give them equal rights at the same time?” I remember asking my 10th grade Political Science teacher. He quickly responded, “They did try. Since 1923. But it never went anywhere.” He cut the conversation short and went on to another topic.
But yes. I imagine our grandmothers and great-grandmothers had many meetings and discussions questioning why it was that women, in essence, were left out of the U.S. Constitution.
These discussions most likely left the dinner table and women’s weekly bridge parties and I imagine eventually spilled out onto the street, into the churches and overflowed community meeting halls. I wasn’t there but I can easily see political rallies taking place where women of all backgrounds wanted to be included in The Constitution of the United States of America.
It took nearly 50 years for Congress to at least have a discussion about voting to amend the U.S. Constitution. It wasn’t until the year of my birth, 1970, that for the first time in history the House considered and passed by a 352–15 roll-call vote, the Constitutional Amendment, also known as HJ Res 264.
And on the day of my birth, October 7, 1970 the debate finally went to the Senate. With bated breath, I imagine every woman in the country waited to see if in fact the U.S. Constitution could be amended to allow women to enjoy the same rights and protections as men under the United States Constitution. They waited. And then waited some more. HJ Res 264 was handed back and forth between the House and Senate, to make amendments to the Amendment. After so many years had passed, and all of the stalling and excuses were made to keep it from going to the Senate for that final vote, the most important Bill that would have cemented equality between men and women was eventually forgotten.
Sucking all of the life out of the room and overshadowing HJ Res 264 was a new kind of battle that took on a different form as the Women’s Movement started to take shape. In 1973 the landmark case, Roe v. Wade, was brought to the front of our collective consciousness. Headlines must have screamed “My Body My Choice,” and I imagine news anchors gave up-to-the-minute reports on the legislation that was essentially passed on January 22, 1973 that de-criminalized abortion. Although de-criminalizing it was a boon for women’s rights, it certainly wasn’t equal rights under the Constitution and nor was abortion officially Constitutionally protected.
But if HJ Res 264 had been passed abortion rights would have been moot. If women enjoyed equal rights as men under the Constitution of the United States to begin with, they could not only get abortions if they wanted, they could do whatever they wanted with their body even turn into men, if they so chose, under the United States Constitution.
I’m no political science expert and maybe I’m getting it backwards but I guess with the deflection of HJ Res 264 Congress left it up to each individual state to insert a Women’s Bill of Rights into their State Constitutions because it has never been brought to Congress again.
I’ll admit. It’s appalling to think that it’s taken my entire lifetime for only four states to recognize women as having equal rights to men.
I don’t pay attention to media or causes so when I mentioned to some friends and my husband that I wanted to write a piece celebrating this landmark legislation it was recommended that I also make clear my position on trans rights.
After a shallow dive into what’s being said about HB-1607 it seems as though the media is weaponizing it, focusing on some of the language in the legislation that defines terms, ultimately claiming HB-1607 is an anti-trans bill rather than what it actually is: women’s rights protected under the State Constitution.
These days the media seems to weaponize everything. It’s disheartening that equal rights under the law for women must be weaponized and not celebrated simply for what it is.
Because this is a blog and an opinion piece I’ll give you my opinion: if an adult person wants to be recognized as the opposite gender they were born into I don’t have a problem honoring that request. I am not their mother, nor their guide nor am I superior to another human being in any way. Live and let live I always say as long as they are not hurting children or others. Adversely, there are many in the trans community that actually support the idea of a Women’s Bill of Rights for it could, pardon the pun, transition into them securing Constitutionally protected rights as well. All human beings deserve equal protection under the United States Constitution.
Also, it is my opinion that the passing of the Mississippi Women’s Bill of Rights was the continuing conversation that began all the way back in 1839.
Mississippi was actually the very first state to give married women rights to their own property.
The story goes that a Chickasaw woman named Elizabeth “Betsy” Love married a man named James Allen. She came to the marriage with property of her own, and he came to the marriage with debt.
Betsy was born in the 1780’s in what is now North Mississippi but back then it was called The Chickasaw Nation.
When creditors demanded Betsy’s property be used to settle James’ debts she argued that under Chickasaw law, her property was her own and James’ creditors could have no part of it.
The Fisher versus Allen case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court, which ruled in Betsy’s favor.
Thus, the Mississippi Legislature passed a new law, the first in the Nation. This landmark ruling influenced the Mississippi Legislature to pass a new law in February of 1839 recognizing married women’s property rights. Other states soon followed suit.
How fortunate I am to now live in the Magnolia State, a State that recognizes women equal in every way.
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