Meryl Streep helps revive the Equal Rights Amendment, is wonderful
We don’t really need another reason to obsess over Meryl Streep, but we’re just simply blown away by her latest efforts to make the country better. The three time Oscar winner turned her attention to Congress this week, sending every member a personalized letter asking them to revive the Equal Rights Amendment, which has been all but forgotten since 1972.
The actress, when she’s not killing it on the big screen and just winning life in general, took the time to pen 535 letters asking members of Congress to reconsider the amendment. The ERA was written in 1920, and passed in Congress in 1972, but failed to receive enough state support to be ratified and added to the Constitution. The amendment, if ratified, would ensure equal pay and provide that “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”
While attention to the ERA was largely dormant for some time, there are currently several movements to resurrect it, and it is receiving a lot of bi-partisan support. In fact, Streep joins the ranks of Representatives Carolyn Maloney (D, NY) and Cynthia Lummis (R, Wyo.) in the House, and other celebrities like Jane Fonda, Rashida Jones and Gloria Steinem to get the amendment the support it needs to pass.
According to the AP, Streep says, in her letter, “I am writing to ask you to stand up for equality – for your mother, your daughter, your sister, your wife or yourself – by actively supporting the Equal Rights Amendment.” She also sent, along with the letter, a copy of the book, Equal Means Equal by Jessica Neuwirth which bills itself as a “smart and timely primer for the movement to provide American women with a constitutional right to equality—published to coincide with a documentary of the same name.”
Streep’s campaign is just the latest in a tide of female actresses speaking out against the unfair treatment of women in America today. Streep is echoing these other voices, reminding Congress that, “A whole new generation of women and girls are talking about equality – equal pay, equal protection from sexual assault, equal rights,” and that “The ERA is not just a women’s rights issue. It will have a meaningful benefit for the whole human family.”
Maybe Streep was inspired by her new role in Suffragette in which she plays British women’s rights activist Emmeline Pankhurst, or maybe she’s just one of the best humans on the planet. Either way, when Meryl Streep tells you to do something, you best do it. Listen up, Congress.
(Image via Universal Pictures)
