Equal Rights Amendment

Notes on Articles

Notes on Source: Equal Rights Amendment Website

Notes on Book: Alice Paul and the Fight for Women's Rights

Notes on Documentary - Amend: The Fight for America (episode 4, Netflix, watched on YouTube)

Annotated Bibliography

Kops, Deborah. Alice Paul and the Fight for Women’s Rights. Calkins Creek, 2017.

This book was about Alice Paul and her involvement in the Women’s Rights Movement. From chapter 9 through to the end of the book, it discusses the Equal Rights Amendment. This book details the creation of the Equal Rights Amendment (it was first drafted by Alice Paul), and the process of its progression through the U.S. federal legislature. It includes specific events related to this, for example when it passed in the House, Senate, and some of the important ratifications by state as well. It mentioned the involvement, actions, and opinions of other women’s rights groups at the time, in relation to the ERA, specifically the National Organization for Women’s part in the ERA making progress on various steps of getting towards ratification. It also explained the connection of women’s protective labor laws in place at the time, and how that related to the reasoning of some people and groups who were against the Equal Rights Amendment.

Institute, Alice Paul. “Equal Rights Amendment.” Equal Rights Amendment, www.equalrightsamendment.org, 2018. Accessed 17 Nov. 2022.

This website, made by the Alice Paul Institute, includes lots of information about the Equal Rights Amendment. It has information about the ERA’s history, including which states have ratified it, and its process through Congress, but it also includes information about the ERA in Congress today, and the two paths to ratification and how to achieve those. It talks about why the Equal Rights Amendment is necessary, it also includes resources to publicize and promote the ERA.

Blakemore, Erin. “Why the Fight Over the Equal Rights Amendment Has Lasted Nearly a Century.” history.com, 21 Mar. 2022, https://www.history.com/news/equal-rights-amendment-fail-phyllis-schlafly. Accessed 29 Nov. 2022.

This article included background information on the Equal Rights Amendment, including the several variations in its wording, and some of the important dates and events that happened in legislation regarding it, like some of the important state ratifications. It also mentioned STOP ERA, an organization created by Phyllis Schlafly in opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment. It included quotes from Phyllis Schlafly that explained her reasoning for opposing the amendment.

Kennedy, Lesley. “How Phyllis Schlafly Derailed the Equal Rights Amendment.” history.com, 9 Feb. 2021, https://www.history.com/news/equal-rights-amendment-failure-phyllis-schlafly. Accessed 29 Nov. 2022.

This article explains Phyllis Schlafly’s opinions and reasoning behind her opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment. As well, professors Don Critchlow and Brandy Faulkner describe Phyllis’s beliefs, which she used to convince many others to support her grassroots organization that opposed the Equal Rights Amendment (STOP ERA). According to the article, Phyllis Shlafly and STOP ERA “ultimately lead to the ERA’s defeat” when it was 3 states short of ratification by the constitutional deadline.

Netflix. “Amend: The Fight for America”, executive produced and hosted by Will Smith, episode 4, 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8LysT1ukjY. Accessed 10 Dec. 2022.

This documentary talked about the 14th Amendment, and how women tried to get it to apply to them, and then how that eventually ended up as the Equal Right Amendment. The 14th Amendment was about discrimination based on race, but the Equal Rights Amendment was eventually written in a similar way as the 14th Amendment, just applied to sex. It talked about legal cases, legislation, and other events that were important to the timeline of women’s rights. It also mentioned a lot of reproductive rights cases, how women’s reproductive rights in the U.S. have evolved (although not always improved), and how women’s reproductive rights would be affected by having the Equal Rights Amendment as part of the Constitution.

Bleiweis, Robin. “The Equal Rights Amendment: What You Need To Know.” American Progress, https://www.americanprogress.org/article/equal-rights-amendment-need-know/. American Progress, 29 Jan. 2020. Accessed 11 Dec. 2022.

This article talked about the impact of the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. It mentioned how having the Equal Rights Amendment in the Constitution would provide added legal support against sexual discrimination and assault, as well as reinforcing legislation preventing pay discrimination, pregnancy discrimination, and reproductive rights. Finally, the article also provided the reasoning of ERA advocates for why it should still be able to be passed in Congress today, even though it is past the original ratification deadline.

The Equal Rights Amendment

by Mayla Landis-Marinello

Did you know that women are never mentioned in the Constitution? Not even once! The truth is that women were not considered equals and did not have rights when the Constitution was written in 1789. Even though views on women’s rights have drastically changed from then to today, women are still not rightfully acknowledged in the U.S. Constitution.

The Equal Rights Amendment is an amendment to the Constitution that would ensure and make clear that women are equal with men. That no matter what gender you define yourself with, you are seen as an equal human being in the United States of America.

The Equal Rights Amendment, otherwise known as the ERA, was first drafted by Alice Paul in 1923. It read, “Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction. Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.” (Kops, 2017)

In 1943, Alice Paul revised the language of the ERA with the help of Hatton Sumners, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and two senators. The revised ERA said, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”

In the spring of 1970, congresswoman Martha Griffiths used a discharge petition, a rare parliamentary procedure to allow the ERA to be debated on the House floor, because it had previously been stuck in a committee where it had not been moving anywhere. She eventually succeeded in getting the required majority of House members, 218 out of 435 representatives, to sign the petition, after spending 40 days of work convincing her colleagues to support her.

The Equal Rights Amendment was voted on by the House of Representatives for the first time on August 10, 1970. It won, with 350 in favor and 15 against. In the fall of 1970, the Senate held hearings for the ERA but they didn’t vote on it.

Because the Senate waited so long to vote on it, the ERA had to go back to the House of Representatives. The House passed the ERA again on October 12, 1971, with a vote of 354 in favor and 23 against. The Senate finally voted on March 22, 1972, and it passed in that chamber as well, with 84 in favor and 8 against. Next, 38 states needed to ratify the ERA by March 1979 because Congress had set a seven year deadline for ratification. Although this seven year deadline has been common since the 20th amendment, Congress had been convinced to set it this time by Representative Emanuel Celler and Senator Sam Ervin, both of whom were strong opponents of the ERA.

In 1972, the conservative political activist Phyllis Schlafly formed the group STOP ERA, which stood for “Stop Taking Our Privileges, Equal Rights Amendment.” The history.com article “Why the Fight Over the Equal Rights Amendment Has Lasted Nearly a Century” says that “she warned women that if equal rights were enshrined in the Constitution, the heterosexual world order would collapse. Morality would fall by the wayside and women would be at risk of losing their femininity and the opportunities presented by marriage.” Schlafly gained many followers, and she was a leader in the resistance to the amendment.

She used many arguments against the ERA to convince people to support her organization. Don Critchlow, the author of a book about Phyllis Schlafly, said that Schlafly: 

and her large number of followers—were concerned that the courts would interpret it as abortion on demand, same-sex marriage and women in the draft…. Furthermore, she felt that much of the legislation protecting women in pay and gender discrimination had already been enacted. (Kennedy, 9 Feb. 2021)

Many of the opposers of the Equal Rights Amendment were making assumptions about what it would mean if it were ratified. One of these assumptions that Phyllis Schlafly often told her followers was that women would be drafted—although if the ERA were ratified today, that is not a large concern because many women already participate in the military, and the U.S. also might not reinstate the draft.

Additionally, Schlafly shared a concern with many others that current government protections for women would be invalidated if the ERA were part of the Constitution, even though the ERA could actually increase governmental protections for women. For example, the ERA could help protect Title 9, which prevents sex discrimination in a federally-funded-school setting, “The ERA could provide additional legal support in cases challenging the government and its efforts to disadvantage survivors and to dilute much-needed protections that acknowledge, respect, and protect them.” (Bleiweis, 29 Jan. 2020)

The Equal Rights Amendment would also “provide additional support for new and existing protections against sex discrimination in areas including gender-based violence (GBV), the workplace, and access to reproductive health care.” (Bleiweis, 29 Jan. 2020)

It could also “bolster … arguments in support of Congress’ constitutional authority and thus giv[e] more than 50 million survivors an additional pathway to justice” in the case of the Violence Against Women Act, which fought gender-based violence. (Bleiweis, 29 Jan. 2020)

Although sex-based pay differences are prohibited by the Equal Pay Act of 1963, the Equal Rights Amendment could further prevent pay discrimination, including the loophole where people claim that a pay difference is not based on sex.

As well, the ERA could reinforce the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, and “provide additional reasoning, grounded in constitutional protections, to challenge policies that effectively exclude individuals seeking pregnancy accommodations from the protection of the law, as well as to ensure equitable treatment and better conditions for pregnant workers.” (Bleiweis, 29 Jan. 2020)

And as mentioned before, the Equal Rights Amendment could make a huge difference in reproductive rights in the U.S., by “further buttress[ing]” the “existing constitutional protections and help[ing] guard against the growing onslaught of attempts to restrict access to reproductive health care including abortion and contraception.” (Bleiweis, 29 Jan. 2020) And with the recent overturning of Roe vs. Wade in 2022, and the resulting laws restricting reproductive access in many U.S. states, the Equal Rights Amendment could be a game-changer for the fight for reproductive rights today.

In July 1978, the National Organization for Women (NOW) organized a march with 100,000 supporters in Washington D.C., protesting that the deadline for the ERA be extended. This was successful—in October, 1978, Congress voted to extend the deadline for ratification to June 30, 1982, giving states 3 more years to ratify. But at the new deadline in 1982, the ERA still needed three more states to ratify it before it could become a part of the U.S. Constitution.

Since then, three more states have ratified the amendment, fulfilling the necessary requirement of ratification by 38 states. In March of 2017, Nevada became the 36th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. Illinois ratified the ERA in April 2018, and finally, Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the amendment. The Equal Rights Amendment reached the minimum number of ratified states required by Congress when it sent the ERA to the states for ratification in 1972.

However, the process was far from done. Nebraska, Tennessee, Idaho, Kentucky, and South Dakota all tried to rescind their ratifications. They have not succeeded yet, because there is a lot of controversy over whether it is legal to rescind the ratifications.

According to the Equal Rights Amendment Website, “It is most likely that the actions of the five states … to rescind their ratification … are a legal nullity.” (Alice Paul Institute, 2018) The American Progress article “The Equal Rights Amendment: What You Need to Know” similarly notes that ERA “Advocates also dismiss the attempts of five states to rescind their ratifications, given that such attempts with the 14th and 15th Amendments were considered to lack constitutional authority and were thus ignored.” (Bleiweis, 29 Jan. 2020)

However, another article mentions that, “After a court battle, a federal district court ruled that Idaho could rescind its support and that the lack of support in the state should be recognized, indicating that if other legal challenges were brought, they would likely fall in favor of the states that rescinded their adoptions of the amendment.” (Blakemore, 21 Mar. 2022)

Based on the contradicting opinions and court rulings, there is still plenty of controversy today over the legality of the attempts by several states to rescind their ratifications.

There is disagreement over whether the five ratifications that states later tried to rescind count towards the 38-state ratification requirement or not, but even if it were guaranteed that they did count, there is still the issue of the deadline.

When Congress passed the ERA, it imposed a 7-year deadline for ratification, which, as mentioned above, got extended another 3 years. But still, the deadline for ratification of the ERA was in 1982, now forty years ago. 

According to the American Progress article “The Equal Rights Amendment: What You Need to Know,” ERA “Advocates argue that if Congress can impose and extend ratification deadlines, then it can also remove them.” They “argue that the ratification deadline—if even constitutional—is nonbinding given that it was written into the preamble of the amendment and thus is not present in the language ratified by the states.” And the article says that “Based on this argument, the House Judiciary Committee passed a resolution to strike the time limit from the preamble of the ERA in November 2019. The resolution awaits a vote by the full House, and there is also a bipartisan companion bill awaiting uncertain action in the Senate.”

The Equal Rights Amendment Website claims that there are two ways to get the ERA ratified today: by removing the deadline imposed on the ratification by Congress in the first place, or by starting the whole process over, although the latter would require the amendment being passed in the Senate and House again, and ratified by 38 states. And for the option of the deadline being removed, a bill to remove it has to be passed in the House and the Senate.

The House of Representatives did pass (222 in favor, 204 against) a bill to remove “the deadline for the ratification of the” ERA, on March 17, 2021. This bill had been introduced to the House on January 21, 2021, and introduced to the Senate on January 22, 2021. Although it was introduced to the Senate, it has not been voted on yet. (Alice Paul Institute, 2018)

It is still possible to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, whether by removing the deadline or by starting the whole process over again. Removing the deadline is a shorter process and therefore would probably happen faster, however the benefit of the whole amendment being introduced anew is that there would not be controversy over state recessions of ratifications, or disagreement around the legality of the deadline, and removing it. 

It is not as if the Equal Rights Amendment does not have support. In fact, according to the Equal Rights Amendment Website, a 2016 study “found that 94% of Americans support an amendment to the Constitution to guarantee equal rights for men and women. This support reached as high as 99% among 18-to-24-year-olds and African-Americans, Asian-Americans, and Hispanic-Americans.” (Alice Paul Institute, 2018)

And, more recently:

A June 2022 poll by Data for Progress showed that 85 percent of the people polled support the Equal Rights Amendment, with only 10 percent opposing it and 5 percent not sure. The breakdown by party showed very high support across the partisan divide…. (Alice Paul Institute, 2018)

Additionally, the ERA Website said that “Polls consistently show that a strong majority of those polled think that the Constitution already guarantees equal rights to males and females (80% of those polled in the 2016 survey and 70% of those polled in the 2022 one).” (Alice Paul Institute, 2018)

Many Americans do support the Equal Rights Amendment. It is just a matter of them telling that to their legislators and getting them to pass the bill in Congress to remove the deadline—or to act on starting the ratification process over again.

As stated by the American Progress article “The Equal Rights Amendment: What You Need to Know,” in 2020 the U.S. “[lagged] behind the 76 percent of countries around the world with constitutions that guarantee equal rights for women.” (Bleiweis, 29 Jan. 2020) And the Equal Rights Amendment would make a huge difference in ensuring the rights of all people in the United States, regardless of sex or gender. So it is clearly time that we pass the Equal Rights Amendment!

Works Cited

Blakemore, Erin. “Why the Fight Over the Equal Rights Amendment Has Lasted Nearly a Century.” history.com, 21 Mar. 2022, https://www.history.com/news/equal-rights-amendment-fail-phyllis-schlafly. Accessed 29 Nov. 2022.

Bleiweis, Robin. “The Equal Rights Amendment: What You Need To Know.” American Progress, https://www.americanprogress.org/article/equal-rights-amendment-need-know/. American Progress, 29 Jan. 2020. Accessed 11 Dec. 2022.

Institute, Alice Paul. “Equal Rights Amendment.” Equal Rights Amendment, www.equalrightsamendment.org, 2018. Accessed 17 Nov. 2022.

Kennedy, Lesley. “How Phyllis Schlafly Derailed the Equal Rights Amendment.” history.com, 9 Feb. 2021, https://www.history.com/news/equal-rights-amendment-failure-phyllis-schlafly. Accessed 29 Nov. 2022.

Kops, Deborah. Alice Paul and the Fight for Women’s Rights. Calkins Creek, 2017.

Netflix. “Amend: The Fight for America”, executive produced and hosted by Will Smith, episode 4, 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8LysT1ukjY. Accessed 10 Dec. 2022.