The Equal Rights Amendment Makes a Comeback

The Equal Rights Amendment

“Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged
by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”

When the Commonwealth of Virginia’s legislature recently approved the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, it became the 38th state to do so. The ERA had finally obtained the constitutionally required two-thirds approval by the states to become part of to the U.S. Constitution.

It’s been a long and winding road for the ERA. First introduced in the House of Representatives in 1923, it eventually was passed by Congress in 1972 by large bipartisan majorities (354 to 24 in the House, 84 to 8 in the Senate).

The amendment was then submitted to the states for ratification. It quickly was approved by 35 states by 1977.

Unfortunately, my home state of Missouri was not one to approve. As a member of the Missouri House of Representatives, I had the opportunity to vote on approving the ERA. I was one of the few Republicans supporting the measure. It eventually passed the House on February 7, 1975 by an 82 to 75 margin. The Missouri Senate did take up the matter.

Missouri became ground zero in the fight against the ERA because of the active opposition to it by Republican Phyllis Schlafly of St. Louis who lead the national effort to defeat the proposal. She effectively stalled approval of the amendment by creating a conservative backlash that turned the ERA into a partisan issue.

Long dormant, the campaign to finally have the necessary additional three states to ratify the amendment took on new meaning with the #MeToo movement that put a renewed focus on equality for women. The final three states voted approval in 2017, 2018 and 2020.

Now the amendment’s adoption is being challenge in the courts. The U.S. Department of Justice’s position is that the original seven-year time frame imposed by Congress for the states to ratify the ERA had long expired.

Supporters of the ERA argue the Constitution is on their side since the executive branch has no role in amending the Constitution. There are efforts in the Congress to extend the ratification time frame to when Virginia approved. It. Also being litigated is the effect of five states’ who withdrew their previous approval of the ERA. Judicial precedent is with ERA supporters.

To me, the right-wing red herrings and fears raised by ERA opponents were extreme and false. I was proud of my vote in 1975 and even more so today as the father of three daughters and three granddaughters. I certainly don’t want them to face discrimination of any kind under the law.

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Photo credit: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call