ERA Coalition's WOMAN Corp Fights for US Women with Fewer Rights the Corporations

The ERA Coalition is taking a bold new approach in the fight for women’s rights by ensuring that at least ONE woman will have constitutional rights moving forward. Ahead of this year’s midterm elections where the future of women’s rights will be on the ballot, the ERA Coalition announces the launch of the fully incorporated WOMAN Corp, the FIRST and ONLY ‘woman’ in America with rights the government will fight to protect. WOMAN Corp was founded to raise awareness about the disturbing fact that the American government protects, and continues to expand, the rights of corporations while the rights of women are stripped away.  

WOMAN Corp is being supported by a campaign that features a call for people to act through political engagement with their members of Congress, donations, and sharing on social media. People are invited to join the staff of WOMAN Corp on LinkedIn by adding it to their work experience. WOMAN Corp is supported by a prestigious Board of Directors including Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, renowned trial lawyer Benjamin Crump, actress Gabriella Pizzolo, award-winning author Ilyasah Shabazz, lawyer and Virginia State Senate candidate Jennifer Carroll Foy, Ogilvy’s global CEO Devika Bulchandani, Kimberly Peeler-Allen of the Centre for American Women and Politics, Mona Sinha of Equality Now. Additional Board announcements will be made in the coming weeks. 

A staggering 85% of people in the United States believe that women are guaranteed equal rights to men under the Constitution. Unfortunately, that is not true and in fact, corporations have more protections than women! To impact change and call attention to this inequity, women have done everything from burning their bras, to marching, to other forms of protest – and yet the Constitution still stands as is, without women having equal protections under law. 

“The Supreme Court has expanded rights for corporations while taking away fundamental rights for women and people who can become pregnant. At the same time, our politics are so polarised that members of Congress refuse to acknowledge that women are equal to men and should have equal protections under the law. This is ridiculous and embarrassing," said ERA Coalition president and CEO Zakiya Thomas. "We need our government to stop playing politics with our rights and do better. It's past time for the Equal Rights Amendment." 

To debut WOMAN Corp, the ERA has enlisted Gabriella (Gabby) Pizzolo – best known for her role in the blockbuster series ‘Stranger Things’ on Netflix – to launch this ceiling-shattering new company. She will also introduce the founding of WOMAN Corp through a satirical video that will be running across various digital and social platforms. 

Gabby opens the film saying: “As a newly legal adult woman in America, I got to say, it’s not awesome here. You see, I was under the silly impression that as a woman, I had the same rights as men. But it turns out that for the last 100 years, women have been trying to get the Equal Rights Amendment recognised so we can be protected equally under the Constitution, but our government is always like ‘lol, no thanks.’ But you know what our government does protect – corporations. The government loves protecting corporations. Which got me thinking… if that's true then I could, hypothetically, create a corporation, name it WOMAN, and the government would care more about protecting WOMAN the corporation than this woman sitting right here.” Gabby concludes with a call to action for people to call their Senator: “Not interested in creating an entire corporation just to get basic human rights? Then help us get the Equal Rights Amendment recognised in the Constitution – because this is fucking bullshit.”  

Lisa Bright, chief creative officer for Ogilvy California and global chief creative officer for Ogilvy PR, said: “2022 has seen the undoing of years of progress that women have marched, protested, and fought for. We wanted to blast a spotlight on the absurdity that while our US government consistently defends the idea that corporations are ‘persons’ – extending more and more rights to them – the rights and protections granted to women are going the absolute opposite direction. And it’s a shame we need to get so damn creative just to get equal rights and protections in this country regardless of our sex. It is imperative that we get the Equal Rights Amendment recognised in our Constitution so that we can put an end to the continued efforts to take away our rights.” 

WOMAN Corp was developed by award-winning creative agency Ogilvy with additional support from BCW and GroupM. 

Despite 100 years of marching and protesting, and 50 years since the initial passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, the amendment has not been published. Through WOMAN Corp, the ERA Coalition hopes to empower Americans to continue to fight this prodigious inequality and mobilise congress to pass legislation to affirm the Equal Rights Amendment is part of the Constitution. 

To get involved people can reach out to their Senators and Congressional representatives via social media using the hashtags #WomanCorp #ERANow, share the WOMAN Corp video, and join the staff of WOMAN Corp via LinkedIn. To learn more about WOMAN Corp and how you can support this effort, visit www.womancorp.org.