I agree, Kevin. The Equal Rights Amendment has never happened because it's *really* difficult to change the Constitution (as it should be.) In today's modern era or mass communications, it requires a huge amount of concensus of the populace to make it happen.

Fundamentally, many Americans take these rights for granted, so they feel there is no need for the ERA. I was really just a kid back in the day of the big push for the ERA, but in retrospect I think that the proponents failed to make people realize how shaky those rights they take for granted are -- any law passed by Congress can be repealed. It's not the same thing as a "right" guarenteed by the Constitution. I think a lot of people perceived it as those "damn feminists" trying to get special priviledges.

Funny, a recent pro-AA article I read was quoting statistics on wages, and complaining how black people are paid much less than white people. True -- but the same statistics showed white women being paid substantially less than black men, with black women lagging even further behind. Quite sad, really.