Enshrining Equality in the Constitution
Enshrining equality into the Constitution would guarantee that women and men are equal under the law and protect against attempts to roll back gender-based protections.
The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)
As the nation celebrates its 150th birthday this year, advocates for gender equality are calling for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). The amendment guarantees that no political, civil, or legal discrimination should be based on sex and that all men and women are entitled to equal protection under the law.
Advancing Equality in Various Fields
ERA supporters say the amendment is a vital tool for advancing equality in the fields of workforce and pay, pregnancy discrimination, sexual harassment and violence, reproductive autonomy, and protections for LGBTQ+ individuals. It will also signal to the courts that they should apply a more rigorous level of legal scrutiny to laws and government policies that discriminate against people on the basis of their sex.
The Push for Ratification
The ERA is being pushed to ratify by state legislatures and lawmakers in Congress following a surge of interest in women’s rights over the last several years, particularly as a result of the Women’s March on Washington and the #MeToo Movement. The ERA’s ratification process requires three-fourths of the state legislatures to vote in favor. It is also necessary for Congress to pass a resolution affirming the validity of the ERA and removing the time limit from its preamble, before states can ratify it.
Challenges and Delayed Progress
Feminists have long supported the ERA as the best way to ensure that no legal discrimination against women exists under the Constitution. However, despite early progress by feminist groups, the movement stalled after social conservatives, including Phyllis Schlafly, led a national campaign to stop the ERA in the 1970s.
After 1973, the number of states ratifying the ERA slowed to a trickle and in 1982, only 35 states had ratified it. As a result, advocates faced a series of hurdles and challenges to the ratification process.
A major stumbling block was a lack of support from state legislatures, as many saw the amendment as a threat to their sex-based protections. Five states - Idaho, Kentucky, Nebraska, Tennessee, and South Dakota - attempted to rescind their ratification of the ERA before 1982.
In response, Congress enacted a two-step amendment process that required both Congressional action and three-fourths of the states to ratify the ERA. This meant that the ERA could take nearly half a century to be ratified by all thirty-eight states.
As a result of these delays and the fact that a significant portion of the American population does not understand or appreciate the ERA, it fell out of favor in the 1970s and 1980s. As a result, the movement’s momentum dwindled and it was not until 2018, after the ERA’s first ratification in Nevada and Illinois, that states began to show renewed interest in ratifying the amendment.
A Bipartisan Legislative Effort
The ERA is now the subject of a bipartisan legislative effort. A House resolution and Senate resolution have been introduced to remove the time limit from the ERA’s preamble, making it an official constitutional amendment.
