Beyond Equal Suffrage

The Equal Rights Amendment

After a long and arduous battle, women in America earned equal franchise with the 19^th Amendment in 1920. Yet, equal franchise does not equal equality under the law in all realms. While mainstream suffragists (represented, for example, by the National American Woman Suffrage Association or NAWSA) felt their mission had been accomplished, radical suffragists (represented by National Woman’s Party or NWP) immediately refocused on complete constitutional equality with men.^[1] While conservatives would focus on piecemeal reform by issue and by state, the radicals considered a blanket amendment to the constitution the only way to outlawing all discriminatory legislation throughout America.^[2]

Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman wrote the original text of an equal rights amendment in December 1921. Only after significant debates and many drafts, the final resolution of 1943 simply stated, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” An ERA resolution was introduced in the US Congress in each year starting in 1923, but it was only in 1972, in the heyday of the women’s movement, that Congress passed it and sent it to the states for ratification^[3]--38 states needed to do so by the March 1979 deadline.

While 30 states ratified by 1973, 33 by 1974, and 35 by January 1977, the tide was stemmed by a surging and increasingly organized opposition mounted by conservatives, both men and women. Opponents claimed equal rights had been achieved through other legislation, such as the 5^th and the 14^th Amendments, the 1963 Equal Pay Act, the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and the 1972 Equal Opportunity Act, and the ERA would only lead to loss of existing legal protections for women, especially alimony and child support and protection against the military draft.^[4] Some opponents also claimed that passage of ERA would result in banning of independent restrooms for the sexes and permit same-sex marriage.^[5] While ERA supporters at the time dismissed such objections as pandering to unfounded fears, interestingly, both issues have been addressed at state levels in the new millennium even without ERA’s federal passage.

Image credit: Jean Ford Collection, Special Collections & Archives, UNLV

Early reportage indicated that Nevada had initially seemed likely to ratify, and thus remained a major battlefield on which both supporters and opponents concentrated their efforts in the latter part of the ratification window.^[6] Phyllis Schlafly, leader of Stop-ERA and the Eagle Forum, and the most effective opponent nationally, also testified before the Nevada state legislature in 1975.^[7]

The strong opposition from the LDS church (and a less virulent one from the Catholic church) also proved especially effective for the opponents of the amendment.^[8] Eventually, when the extended deadline for states’ ratification passed on June 20, 1982, the tally was still three states short, and five had rescinded their initial ratifications, although the constitutionality of the rescissions remains undetermined.

Image credit: Jean Ford Collection, Special Collections & Archives, UNLV

On March 22, 2017, Nevada became the thirty-sixth state to pass the ERA, thirty-five years after the passing of the original extended deadline. Democrats had recently reclaimed both houses in Nevada, and the resolution was easily passed along party lines. While some commentators have viewed this as mostly a symbolic victory, as the Congress’s deadline for ratification by states was long past, others have pointed out precedent for repealing of such a deadline, as with the 24^th Amendment. In fact, to that end, House and Senate Joint Resolutions were introduced in January 2017 for repealing a deadline for states’ ratification.^[9] Buoyed by Nevada’s turnaround, supporters continue with a “two-state strategy,” focusing especially on rallying Illinois and Virginia, the two that in the intervening decades had managed to have a ratification resolution pass through one house.

Sources:

^[1] Stencel, Sandra. "Equal Rights Fight." In Editorial Research Reports 1978, vol. II, 925-44. Washington, DC: CQ Press, 1978. http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre1978121500.

^[2] Cott, Nancy F. “Historical Perspectives: The Equal Rights Amendment Conflict in the 1920s.” In Conflicts in Feminism, Ed. Marianne Hirsch and Evelyn Fox Keller (New York: Routledge, 1990)

^[3] “Nevada Legislative Counsel Bureau Office of Research Background Paper, 1975 No. 1, Equal Rights Amendment.” https://www.leg.state.nv.us/Division/Research/Publications/Bkground/BP75-01.pdf

^[4] “Nevada Legislative Counsel Bureau Office of Research Background Paper, 1975 No. 1, Equal Rights Amendment.”

^[5] A number of local Nevada newspaper articles indicate these as important fears and reservations that were aired by ERA opponents. Among others, see the unidentified accompanying newspaper clipping “First ERA hearing ‘circus’; get serious,” found in the Jean Ford Collection, UNLV Special Collections and Archives.

^[6] After the unexpected defeat in Nevada in 1973, the 1975 and 1977 sessions generated a high degree of hope of ratification by both houses in the state. The resolution easily passed the Assembly in 1975, but was defeated 12-8 in the Senate, despite projections of victory. Continuing hopes of ratification were expressed throughout the 1970s, for instance seen here in, “ERA Amendment now Looking Good,” Valley Times, November 19, 1974.

^[7] Wagner, Sue. Through the Glass Ceiling: A Life in Nevada Politics. Reno: University of Nevada Oral History Program, 2005

^[8] For opposition from the Mormon Church, see for instance, “Mormons, Young GOPers join ranks of Stop ERA,” Valley Times, 1974 (exact date not noted). For the impact of both churches, see Wagner, Through the Glass Ceiling.

^[9] “Nevada Finally Ratified the Equal Rights Amendment. Now What?” Nevada Lawyer, January 2018.

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