The Equal Rights Amendment is one of the many proposed amendments to the Constitution not to be ratified. One of the aims of the liberal wing of feminism in the 1970s was to have the ERA added to the Constitution to give women full legal access to equality.
What the ERA Says
The Equal Rights Amendment is a very short proposed amendment to the US Constitution that would prohibit all forms of gender-based discrimination. Section 1 shows exactly what the amendment means. It reads, “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.” Sections 2 and 3 simply give Congress the right to enforce this amendment and make it law two years after ratification.
Brief History of the Equal Rights Amendment
Shortly after women in the United States earned the right to vote in 1920, American feminists wanted the Equal Rights Amendment passed. This equal rights act first came before Congress in 1923 and languished there for a half-century. Few people did anything about the Equal Rights Amendment but instead left it alone.
When the second-wave of feminism came around in the 1960s, the equal right movement then had advocates who argued for the passage of the ERA. These equal rights advocates went on a campaign to have the ERA ratified. They needed 38 states to ratify the amendment and received only 35, leaving them 3 states short by the Congressional deadline. Opponents of the equal rights campaign launched an effective counter-argument. These advocates pushed the idea that women would be drafted, and unisex restrooms would be mandatory under the ERA. This type of change in cultural structure scared many away from the ERA.
The Plan for Equal Rights Advocates
The plan for feminists who support the ERA is the 3-state strategy. Under this strategy, activists in the 15 states that have not ratified the ERA try to get legislators to pass the amendment. Once three of those states have taken a successful ratification vote, Congress can take up the issue again. The hope is that Congress will allow the previous 35 votes to stand, in accordance with previous Supreme Court decisions, and that the ERA can become law without a full-fledged national battle again. The equal rights advocates making this case are not a unified organization but do have an online presence through which they are trying to organize supporters.
