For over 100 years, women have waited for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, which would provide the explicit constitutional right to equality. Introduced in 1923, the amendment had momentum in the late 1970’s but stalled while waiting for enough states to ratify it.
In 2020, Virginia became the 38th and final state needed to ratify the ERA. Now that three-quarters of states have passed the amendment, the American Bar Association passed a resolution in August 2024 indicating that ratification time constraints are inconsistent with Article V of the Constitution, which outlines the process for amending the Constitution. The Bar Association also said that Article V does not allow any states to rescind their ratification of the amendment, and it urges federal, state, local, territorial, and tribal governments to support the implementation of the Equal Rights Amendment. All that remains is for the White House to have the Archivist of the United States to publish it.
The League of Women Voters is now urging citizens to contact the White House at 202-456-1111 or send a direct email (https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/) [SG1] [WML2] to the President’s office (Contact Biden & Harris) urging the president to instruct the US Archivist to publish the ERA as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution.
How do you handle the call?
When you call, identify yourself with your name, city, and state. Identify your purpose — to urge President Biden to instruct the US Archivist to publish the Equal Rights Amendment as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution.
What is the ERA? The text of the ERA contains three sections, worded as follows:[SG3]
Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.
In plain language, the ERA
What’s the holdup?
After Virginia’s ratification in 2020, the first Trump administration opposed publication and ratification and directed the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) to issue an opinion saying time had expired to ratify it. In 2022, the OLC issued a new memo indicating that Congress or the courts could act to ratify it. Meanwhile, the Biden administration expressed support but hasn’t taken action.
Why is it important?
In 2011, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia stated that the Constitution did not prohibit sex-based discrimination. While the 14th Amendment has been used in recent decades to argue against sex-based discrimination, the language from which the amendment draws doesn’t make it clear that sex-based discrimination is unconstitutional.
“Adopting the ERA would solidify constitutional sex equality protections and reinforce that the whims of judicial attitudes cannot weaken them. As a new addition to the Constitution, the ERA’s adoption would create space for an entirely new category of judicial review for sex discrimination cases,” says the Center for American Progress, “It would also provide a constitutional foundation for Congress to pass new and more robust laws that protect women and girls.” The ERA will help address gender-based violence, pay equity, women’s healthcare, childcare, and tax policies.
Increasing equality for women has proven to benefit men as well. For example, equality in the workplace has increased both support for fathers and mothers who take time off to attend field trips and take kids to doctor’s appointments. Higher pay for women has allowed parents to negotiate caregiving, including allowing fathers to stay at home when mothers earn a higher salary. Equality gives fathers parental rights, when they used to be considered as a secondary option.
What is the history of the ERA? [SG4]
Since 1923, women have argued pragmatically about how to motivate a political body dominated by men who are accustomed to having a controlling say. The Smithsonian Magazine offers a rich account of the debate around the ERA. [SG5] Some women worried that protections provided to women in the workforce would be rolled back. Others fretted it would instigate a sex war. Women of color, whose right to vote came far later than white women’s, stressed about its lack of race-based protections. (Indigenous women, Asian-American women, Latinas, and Black women gained the right to vote piecemeal and as late as 1965 with the passage of citizenship and civil rights laws.) The right to equality remained fragile, subject to current interpretation of other Constitutional amendments.
In 2019, the Smithsonian Magazine noted that efforts to pass the ERA splintered with efforts to make the amendment palatable for legislators. The amendment had the public’s support all along. But what seems to be best described as “special interests — those who had the ear of the elite in Congress — won over the Legislature. At times, the ERA had strong support from both the Republican and Democratic parties. The GOP embraced the ERA first in 1940. Four years later, Democrats endorsed it.
Since the 1970s, special interests have swayed Congresspersons[SG6] despite the widespread support of the public. By calling the White House en masse, we can demonstrate the overwhelming support for ratifying the ERA and enshrining equal rights in the Constitution.
The League of Women Voters, a non-partisan, multi-issue organization encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase public understanding of major policy issues and influences public policy through education and advocacy. All men and women are invited to join the LWV where hands-on work to safeguard democracy leads to civic improvement. For information, visit the website www.lwvmontcoin.org or the League of Women Voters of Montgomery County, IN Facebook page.
