Why the Equal Rights Amendment, a 1972 Ideal, Is Back

The push to amend the U.S. constitution to enshrine protections against sexual discrimination is back, almost half a century after the question was first put to the states. Advocates of the Equal Rights Amendment are mobilizing again now that 38 state legislatures, the number needed, have voted to approve it. The obstacles are considerable, including the inconvenient fact that the ratification deadline set by Congress came and went in 1982.

It’s a proposed addition to the U.S. Constitution that the U.S. Congress approved in 1972. The key section is 24 words long: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” If enacted, it would add sex to race and religion as attributes protected at the highest level of judicial scrutiny. As with all constitutional amendments, the ERA was sent to the states for ratification after winning the required two-thirds votes in the House and Senate. To take effect, it needed to be ratified by three-quarters of the union, meaning 38 states. Congress also chose, in the joint resolution proposing the amendment, to put a seven-year deadline on ratification.