Equal Rights Amendment

Equal Rights Amendment

Proposed amendment to the US Constitution to provide for the equality of sexes under the law, originally proposed in 1923 by Alice Paul, a leader of the women's suffrage movement. The National Organization of Women (NOW), formed in 1966, made ratification of the ERA central to its mission, and, together with other interests, it undertook a major effort during the 1960s and early 1970s, culminating in the passage of the ERA by Congress in 1972. However, although the amendment received the necessary two-thirds majority of both houses of Congress, it failed to be ratified by sufficient states by the stipulated deadline of July 1982. Since its defeat, the ERA has been reintroduced in each opening session of Congress.

The ERA would have made unconstitutional any laws granting one sex different rights from the other. In order to become law, the amendment needed a two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress or a supporting petition of two-thirds of the state legislatures, followed by ratification by three-quarters of the states. Despite strong opposition from Conservative politicians and organizations, by August 1974 the amendment had been ratified by 33 of the required 38 states.

A congressional mandate had set March 1979 as the deadline for ratification; by June 1978, only two additional states had approved the ERA. Ceding to popular sentiment and intense lobbying by a united women's rights coalition, Congress granted a three-year, two-month extension for approval, yet not one additional state ratified the amendment in that time. By 2002, the ERA had been ratified by 35 of the necessary 38 states, and 16 states guaranteed equality of the sexes in their state constitutions.

The 1960s brought renewed attention to the amendment. Although women's roles in the economy had changed, hopes had faded that the Supreme Court would use the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to subject laws that discriminated on the basis of sex to the same strict scrutiny applied to laws discriminating on the basis of race. Thus, when protective legislation was revealed to have harmed the very group it was intended to protect, liberal feminists had an additional reason for urging passage of the ERA. After a massive lobbying campaign, Congress, in March 1972, voted overwhelmingly to submit to the states a revised version of the ERA for ratification within seven years. Twenty-two states rushed to ratify, but, by 1975, momentum had slowed. As the ratification deadline approached, Congress extended it by three years, to 30 June 1982. Even after this extension, supporters could secure favorable votes from only thirty-five of the thirty-eight states needed for passage. Five states, meanwhile, rescinded their endorsements. In December 1981 a federal judge ruled that those rescissions were legal and that Congress had acted illegally in extending the ratification deadline. Before ERA supporters could appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, however, the deadline for ratification expired, leaving opponents of the amendment victorious.

Opposition to the ERA in the 1970s and 1980s differed in important ways from that encountered in previous ...