“Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” Those 24 words make up the proposed Equal Rights Amendment. The Illinois Senate passed the amendment last month and the House will vote on it as early as this week, but the vote is not a sure thing. Both the House and the Senate have voted in favor of the legislation in the past, but haven’t managed it in the same year. The vote comes 36 years after its 1982 deadline, and if passed, Illinois will be the 37th state to have the ERA on its books, bringing the country a step closer to adding the amendment to the U.S Constitution. Some say the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment is long overdue. Others argue that it’s outdated and no longer needed. Former Illinois state representative Susan Catania, a Republican who sponsored it back in 1982, joins the Morning Shift to take a look at the relevance of the bill today.

GUEST:

Susan Catania, politician