To the Editor:

Re “The Equal Rights Amendment Isn’t the Answer” (Sunday Review, Jan. 19):

Joan C. Williams isn’t asking the right questions when she wonders if continuing the effort to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment is a political battle worth waging. Ratifying the amendment isn’t about politics; it’s about the law and about basic human rights.

Because the Constitution does not mention women, women can go unseen by our judicial system. For example, a 2000 ruling by the Supreme Court struck down a provision of the Violence Against Women Act that allows survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault to sue their attackers in federal court.

Laws like the Equal Pay Act are not protected by the Constitution and can be repealed or rescinded at any time based on political whims. Title IX is already being eroded by the Trump administration.

When the E.R.A. was introduced in Congress in the 1970s, Phyllis Schlafly gave out fresh-baked bread and apple pie to state lawmakers to symbolize the supposed threat it posed to the American way.