Homemakers and Equal Rights Amendment advocacy group. Homemakers Equal Rights Association (HERA) represents a national network of homemakers, organized at the neighborhood, city, state, and national levels to improve the legal and economic security of the career of homemaking and to end the isolation of American homemakers. Founded in 1973 as a committee for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) ratification effort in Illinois, HERA was established as an independent organization in 1975. The name, originally Housewives for the Equal Rights Amendment, was consciously chosen as a reaction against Phyllis Schlafly's stand that the ERA threatened homemakers. As the national reputation of HERA grew, the name was changed in 1978 so as not to appear to be focused only on the ERA. HERA worked for both legislative and non-legislative solutions to specific economic and social problems of homemakers. HERA's concerns included establishing marriage as a legal and economic partnership in which the non-monetary contribution of the homemaker is of equal value to the financial contribution of the out-of-home partner; helping homemakers become an informed and power constituency which can speak for families, and the general quality of life; supporting women in all types of paid and unpaid employment; establishing homemaking as a valid career choice; moving toward equality in marriage and family relationships and to encouraging new understandings in children which will help them thrive in a more equal society; and helping women more fully realize their potential in the family, community, and workplace.
From the description of Homemakers Equal Rights Association (HERA) records, 1971-1984. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 501419508
