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to drop over and see this ’’social leper”; she no longer fits into the orderly scheme of things. She is an "extra woman”, and who needs her anyway? They firmly push away the thought that: "There, but for the Grace of God, go I”, and keep rocketing around in their own little orbits, controlled by their own desires and problems and fears, and have no time to spare for the window. Besides, there is not very much one can do with an extra woman, is there? So this new bottom-of-the-class citizen goes on her lonely way, to the store, window-shopping, to work, to the movies, or what have you. Mabe she’ll even venture to attend a dance, where she'll sit by herself like an idiot, wondering why on earth she came? She feels like one of those ’’ten cents a dance” girls, hoping some man will ask her to dance! She casts her eyes around the hall and sees others like herself, partnerless, looking rather desperately lonely, pretending they don’t mind ’’sitting this one out”, and pretending they are having a wonderful time, while inwardly they are castigating themselves for being such silly fools as to come, and wondering how soon they can gracefully wighdraw without giving anyone the impresion that they are running away. Back they go to their homes to tend to new wounds recently acquired. PART II. Men view a widow in a special light. After all, she is a grown woman, who ’’knows what it’s all about”, no? Sure, she knows what it’s all about, and she also knows that never in her born days has she been in a more vulnerable spot! For all her knowledgeability, she must learn - and fast, that a widow cannot permit herself to be put in any spot where any breath of talk, or whisper of scandal can touch her. She is "fair game” for gossiping tongues, vague rumors, and predatory men, (and even for the not-so predatory ones) who are ready and willing to use her vulnerability against her. Never in her lifetime has she received so many propositions as during her state of widowhood! And the foolish ones sometimes get embroiled in ’’affairs” before they are even aware of it. It’s not fair, but it happens more often than people suspect, or will admit! Also, there can never really be any true friendship between an man and a women who is a widow! Sooner or later, it tends to veer toward the question of the superiority of the masculine ego, and unless the widow is ’’willing to play” the ’’friendship” flies out the door, along with the man, and she is more lonely then before. Some widows, (a goodly percentage, even) prefer the loneliness to the heartache that may come from an affair. The man who plays is looked upon as a ”gay dog”; a widow is summarily labelled a "tramp” A man will unvariably declare any woman ’’promiscuous”, if he is aware that she has been involved in ”an affair” before he came upon the scene, and Heaven forbid that he even contemplate a permanent alliance with any such woman! So, she walks alone, lonely, uprooted, scared, weeping when no one is looking, smiling and pretending she too, is a member in good standing of the human race, but she is not, and she knows she is not, not any longer! She is a threat to all other women, a grim reminder of the inevitability of the order of things, and has lost her citizenship through no fault of her own. Her crime was to outlive her husband, and for this, she must be punished and shunned like a leper, only more so, because in the Leper Society one is accepted, while a widow is not. She is not even tolerated, if the truth be known. She is just over-looked, and she waits, and waits, for someone to look over at her and realize she too, is a person who must go on living, without any good reason for doing so except for the fact that God willed it, and maybe someday extend to her the courtesy of acceptance as a human being. I, a widow, know this to be so. OLGA L. KADUCHOK NASHE ZHYTTIA ENGLISH DIGEST CONTROVERSY OVER THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT (English summary of an article by Marta Tarnawsky which appears in the Ukrainian section of this issue). The text o f the Equal Rights Am endm ent is decep tively sim ple: "See. 1. E quality o f rights under the law shall no t be denied or abridged by the U nited States or by any State on a cco un t of sex. Sec. 2. The C ongress shall have power to enforce by appropriate legislatio n the provisions o f the A rticle . Sec. 3. This Am endm ent shall take effect tw o years after the date o f ra ti fica tio n .” ERA was firs t introduced in Congress in 1923, but it was o n ly in 1972 tha t it received passage by both houses and was presented to the states fo r ratifica tion . To date 35 states have ratified ERA. A m inim um of 38 ra tifica tion s are necessary fo r the A m en dm e nt to take effect. The seven year lim ita tio n period fo r ra tific a tio n w o uld have expired in M arch 1979, but was extended to Ju n e 30, 1982. In the m eantim e three states have acted to rescind th e ir earlier ra tifica tion o f ERA. C o n tro versy over ERA involves a variety of questions: S hould there be reasonable d istin ctio n s in the treatm e nt o f men and women under the law? Is a C o n stitu tio n a l A m endm ent the proper vehicle fo r im proving the legal status o f wom en? W hat are ERA’s possible effects in such areas as fa m ily support, m ilitary service, privacy? Is rescission of a p rio r ra tifica tio n by a state valid? Does Congress have pow er under the C o nstitutio n to extend the ra tifica tio n period? Debate over ERA has been raging both in the po pu lar press and in sch o la rly journals. O pposition to ERA is led by p o litica l conservatives: form er U. S. Senator Sam Ervin, P hyllis S chlafly, the N ational C o uncil of C a th olic Women, A m erican C onservative U nion. The proponents o f ERA are m ostly p o litica l liberals: U. S. Senator Birch Bayh, N ational W om an’s Party, N ational O rganization fo r Women, leaders o f fem in ist g ro up s as w e ll as liberal and sem iliberal U. S. Presidents of both parties from Kennedy to Carter. The strugg le fo r ra tifica tio n is likely to in te nsify as the next three years w ill be the decisive ones fo r ERA.
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