Women's quest for autonomy requires control/sovereignty over both the economic and sexual/reproductive spheres. The two spheres are packaged together— one is not necessarily more or less essential or consequential than the other. Both spheres are equally vital, and sovereignty over one enhances control over the other. Conversely, diminished control over one realm undermines sovereignty over the other.

Given that women's quest for autonomy lies at the core of the New Normal, what public policies might support that quest in the twenty-first century? New Lights took a big step toward answering that question a century ago by proposing the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the US constitution. Shortly after gaining the right to vote in 1920, American feminists led by Alice Paul discovered that in and of itself the vote was necessary but not sufficient to implement their ambitious objective of achieving autonomy.

Hence, to facilitate that objective, they proposed ERA. Though first introduced in Congress in 1923, it did not win final approval until 1972. Congress then sent the following text of ERA to the states where, initially, it sailed swiftly through the ratification process:

• Section 1. Equality of 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 provisions of this article.

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

But just as ERA was racking up the states necessary for ratification, it got blindsided and shoved into limbo by fierce political opposition from Old Lights— those conservatives “who ignore or resist [social] change.” Throughout the 1970s/1980s, Old Lights terrified citizens with “fake news” re ERA, as depicted in the 2020 film Mrs. America. The film's protagonist is the Roman Catholic lawyer Phyllis Schlafly (Cate Blanchett) who headed the crusade to convince Americans that lifting the lid on women's life-options via ERA would damage both women and society alike. Undoing the shackles of patriarchy would, said Schlafly, backfire by exposing women to “perils” from which they had previously been shielded.