Equal Rights Amendment

The Equal Rights Amendment is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution in the 1970s and 1980s. It would give men and women full equality under the law. Alice Paul first wrote the ERA. In 1923, it was introduced in the Congress for the first time. It passed both houses of Congress in 1972 after the National Organization for Women protested outside the United States Senate. Some people opposed it because women were already becoming equal in most areas, and women did not want to be drafted into the Vietnam War. Though 35 states ratified it, the amendment did not pass (38 were needed). Most of the states that did not ratify it were in the Southern United States, which is the most conservative and religious part of the country.

Twenty-one states have a version of the ERA in their state constitutions. Sixteen of those states ratified the federal ERA. Five did not.^[1]

The ERA was introduced into Congress each year from 1923 to 1972. It has been reintroduced in every session of Congress since 1982. In 2011, it was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by 159 House cosponsors and several senators.^[2]

1. ↑ "Ratification Status in the States and State ERAs" (PDF). League of Women Voters, Fairfax Area. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 27, 2004. Retrieved January 13, 2012. the 21: AK, CA, CO, CT, HI, IA, MD, MA, MT, NH, NJ, NM, PA, TX, WA and WY; the 5: FL, IL, LA, UT and VA.
2. ↑ "Rep. Maloney, Sen. Menendez reintroduce Equal Rights Amendment". June 22, 2011. Archived from the original on December 24, 2011. Retrieved December 18, 2011.