Women are persons, too, Strossen says.

Question: If you could make one amendment to the Constitution, what would it be? 

Nadine Strossen: When you say what amendment to the Constitution, the one that of course flashed into my mind, maybe it is not so obvious, was the one that has been pending ever since I think it was first introduced back in the early in the 20th century, the so called Equal Rights Amendment for Women, but that really shouldn't have been necessary because the 14th Amendment which was added after the Civil War already granted equality and all the privileges and immunities of citizenship to all persons. Women are persons. Why do we need our own constitutional right? In fact I would say we didn’t even really need the Bill of Rights or the 14th Amendment. I mean those were sort of making like crystal clear what had already been crystal clear from the beginning and so it is kind of who is enforcing it rather than what the language is.

Recorded On: 2/14/08