Historic SC Senate panel of 4 women OK Equal Right Amendment

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A history making group of female senators approved a resolution to have South Carolina approve the Equal Rights Amendment.

The subcommittee that voted Wednesday was made up of all four women in the state Senate. The 46-member Senate has never had more women.

"I can speak for the four of us when I say we all fight for equal pay for equal work, we all fight for equal justice, equal opportunity, just being seen and heard and addressed as equals, and that has never been more of an issue than it is today,” said state Sen. Mia McLeod, a Democrat from Columbia.

The other senators on the subcommittee were Republican Sen. Katrina Shealy of Lexington, Democratic Sen. Margie Bright Matthews of Walterboro and Republican Sen. Sandy Senn of Charleston, The Post and Courier of Charleston reported.

The 1970's proposal banning any discrimination based on sex stalled after passing in 35 states — three short of the number required to became an amendment to the U.S. Constitution — even after Congress extended an initial 1979 deadline to 1982.

But legislatures in Nevada and Illinois revived it with votes in the past few years and Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the amendment in January,

Amendment supporters acknowledge they will likely need the current Congress to grant another extension. Barring that, they will have to go to court.

Twice this century, South Carolina has had no women in its Senate, including for four years before Shealy won her first election in 2012.

The main supporters of the proposal are one of the General Assembly's most prominent liberals, Democratic Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter of Orangeburg, and one of its most conservative lawmakers, Republican Sen. Tom Davis of Beaufort.

The proposal now moves to the full Senate Judiciary Committee.

“Women, we should have equal rights, so why has it taken 100 years?” Bright Matthews said. “I think every one of us up here agree with that.”