J. MILLARD TAWES, GOVERNOR                              1715

The enactment of this proposed amendment to the Federal Consti-

tution would encourage a revision of State labor laws along more

realistic lines so that those laws in the future would be based upon the

nature of the work rather than upon the sex of the worker. Safety
and health regulations should apply equally and jointly.

Both majority parties, m planks adopted by their national con-
ventions have fully endorsed a constitutional amendment providing
equal rights for women.

The women of Maryland have shared equally with men in the
hardships and sacrifices necessary and incident to the building of this
nation. They have shared equally with men in the pain and distress
which have been involved in the maintenance of the American Re-
public and in the preservation of the ideals of free government.

This nation was "conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposi-
tion that all men are created equal". The AN Equal Rights for Women
Amendment, for the first time, would give validity to this outstanding
principle of the American system.                               

The rights of women before the law are much abridged in many
states. This legal discrimination on the basis of sex constitutes an
intolerable burden upon thousands of women who are solely de-
pendent upon their own efforts for their livelihood. Such discrimina-
tion is a source of irritation and of injustice to them and to many
thousands of others who recognize in it a flat contradiction to the
American principle of equality. This contradiction is entirely out of
accord with the status of American women and with the levels they
have reached through their achievements in all fields of human
endeavor.

The General Assembly of Maryland supports the AN Equal Rights
for Women Amendment; now, therefore

Be it resolved by the General Assembly of Maryland, That the
Congress of the United States is requested to adopt and to submit
to the several states, the AN Equal Rights for Women Amendment in
order that it may speedily be added as an integral part of the Constitu-
tion of the United States; and be it further

Resolved, That the Secretary of State of Maryland be requested to
send copies of this Resolution, under the Great Seal of the State of
Maryland, to the President of the United States, the Secretary of the
Senate of the United States, the Clerk of the House of Representatives
of the United States, and to each member of the Maryland delegation
in the Congress of the United States.

Approved May 3, 1961.

No. 18
(Senate Joint Resolution 15)

Joint Resolution requesting the Governor to appoint a Committee
to study the administration of the Blue Sky Law of Maryland
(Article 32A of the Annotated Code of Maryland—1957 Edition),