A 85% of people in the U.S. believe that women are guaranteed equal rights to men under the Constitution, but this is untrue.
In 1972, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), designed to guarantee protection against sexual discrimination for women under the law, passed both houses of Congress and was sent to the individual states for ratification. Groups on both sides of the issue mobilized to lobby the states for and against passage.
The ERA failed to meet the requisite number of state ratifications (38) by Congress’ deadline of June 30, 1982, so it was not adopted as a Constitutional amendment. In January 2020, Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the ERA. However, pending legal challenges, the amendment’s future remains uncertain.
Due to recent Supreme Court decisions, corporations today have more rights than individual women do.
With this insight in mind, Ogilvy and the ERA Coalition have joined together to take a bold new approach in the ongoing fight for women’s rights in the U.S.: The ERA Coalition launched in November 2022 WOMAN Corp, the first and only “woman” in America with rights the government will fight to protect.
And Ogilvy conceived a whole PR campaign to rise awareness on the harsh fact that the WOMAN Corp concept tries to hihlight: In the Land of freedom, some americans are more free than others depending on whether they are born men or women.
Three creative pieces compose the campaign: A viral video now published on the You Tube channel of the ERA; a dedicated website, where one can find the leaders of WOMAN Corp, contact one’s senator and go to ERA’s website; and banners for social media or even be turned into graphic materials.
On the International Women’s Day it is worth reminding that the gender gap must be closed and not only in developing countries. This campaign tells about this need pushing for the amendment of the gender bias in the Constitution of the so called “Meca” of the free speech and human rights. And does it with a powerful creative turn.
