You probably are happy with your life. Most women are.

You have a loving husband who supports and cares for you and for your children. You enjoy the satisfactions of homemaking, your chosen career. So why should you bother about an Equal Rights Amendment?

But situations change. Your husband may become sick, lose his job. Still worse, he may die. Did you know that, in this country, one of of every six women is a widow? Widows and single women over 65 have less money than any other group in our scoeity. Their average annual income is only $1,397, well below the poverty level.

You may be one of these women.

I think that ratification of the ERA would be helpful not only to the career women but to the married woman who has to reenter the job market.

Mrs. Gerald Ford

Your husband's life insurance may well give you a false sense of security. False, because even a $50,000 policy cannot possibly cover mortgage payments, taxes, education,and everyday living expenses. Be realistic. Add them up.

Nine out of every ten American women will work at some time in their lives.

Currently, 44% of all women of working age are employed. They make up 39% of the total U.S. labor force.

Women with children account for the largest increase in the number of U.S. working women, a number which has almost tripled since 1948. Ont out of every three mothers with preschool children is working now, compared to one out of every eight in 1948.

The average working woman is 38 eyars old and married. As a rule, she works for the same reason men work- because she has to.

But women traditionally are paid less than men for doing identical work. For example, the average women college graduate earns just slightly more than a man who has completed only the eighth grade, and only half as much as a male college graduate. The woman is hired as a secretary or typist, the man as a mangement trainee. The man ahs a future; the woman faces a dead end.

There are still fewer opportunities for women who are high school graduates- at still lower rates of pay.

Even after adjusting for differences in education, work experience and level of employment, the President's Council of Economic Advisers estimated that mean earn at least 20% more than women for identical work, a differential based on sex alone. This differential means than Jane receives $10,000 or less for doing the same work for which James is paid $12,000 or more.

Costs of feeding a family continue to rise. When a mother must siupport her family, should her income be less than that of a single man, simply because she is female?

The Equal Rights Amendment would insure equal pay and equal opportunity for the wife, widow, and divorceee who is helping to support a family.

In the interest of common sense, to say nothing of fairness, I believe this should eb the law of the land for every one of the 50 states.

Ann Landers

Younger men and women are especially conscious of economic discrimination on the basis of sex and favor changes will upgrade women's role in American society.

Remember, no matter how good your present life, situations alter, and you may find yourself facing the ugly facts of economic discrimination, unfair to you and to your family.

It can happen to you.

ERA's main purpose is to prevent federal and state governments from discriminating in employment and salary levels on the basis of sex.

True, many federal laws prohibit such discrimination. But these laws list numerous exemptions and, most importantly, are not being enforced.

Ironically, almost 75% of the women employed by the federal government are in the lowest grades (GS-1 to GS-6).

ERA will give you your choice of life style- and if you have to work or choose to work, it will insure both proper use of your talens and proper compensation for them.

The text of the Equal Rights Amendment is simple?

Section 1. Equality of the rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce by appropriate legislation, the privisons of this article.

Section 3. The amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.

Once ratified, ERA will provide real equality under law for women who have to work, women who want to work, women who must contribute to the support of their families in either a permanent or temporary situation.

For your own sake, for the sake of all women, and for the sake of your family, support the Equal Rights Amendment.

Guarantee that your marriage may be a true family partnership, that beside your husband walks a woman able, if necessary, to share his economic load, to give him a new sense of security.

Recently, President Gerald Ford stated:

In 1970, on the floor of the House, I said that the Equal Rights Amendment was an idea whose time had come. Today I want to reaffirm my personal committment to that Amendment. The time for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment has come just as surely as did the time for the 19th Amendment...

Americans must deal with those inequities that still linger as barriers to the full participation of women in our nation's life. We must strengthen and support laws that prohibit discrimination based on sex.

Join President Ford and all the other presidents- Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon- who have supported the ERA. Write your state senators and representatives and urge them to vote to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.

For more information:

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY WOMEN

2401 VIRGINIA AVE, N.W. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20037

Among the National Organizations Supporting the Equal Rights Amendment

AFL-CIO

American Association of Women Ministers

American Federation of Teachers (AFL-CIO)

American Home Economics Association

American Nurses Association

Catholic Women for the Era

Church Women United

Citizen's Advisory Council on the Status of Women

Democratic Party

Federally Employed Women (FEW)

General Federation of Women's Clubs

League of Women Voters

National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs

National Women's Political Caucus

President's Task Force on Women's Rights and Responsibilities

Republican Party

Women's Christian Temperance Union

Women's Equity Action League (WEAL)

YWCA in Convention

This brochure has been prepared by the American Association of University Women and is offereed free of charge. Contributions will be gratefully accepted to help defray the cost of publication and to advance the cause of ERA ratification. Requests for packages of one hundred copies should be sent to:

AAUW Sales Office

2401 Virginia Ave. NW

Washington, D.C. 20037