Nov 26, 2018
Why the Fight Over the Equal Rights Amendment Has Lasted Nearly a Century
Passage of the ERA seemed like a sure thing. So why did it fail to become law?
Erin Blakemore
Alice Paul, suffragist and vice president of the National Women's party broadcasts plans for the dedication of the New National Headquarters at Washington from her desk at the Capitol. She began the first version of the Equal Rights Amendment in 1923.
Should men and women have equal rights under the law in the United States? It’s a simple question with a seemingly simple solution—a Constitutional amendment that guarantees that equal rights shall not be abridged on the basis of sex. But as the thorny history of the Equal Rights Amendment shows, getting the nation to agree on whether to adopt such an amendment has proven endlessly complex.
It has taken nearly a century of fighting to come close to passing and ratifying the amendment. And though its adoption seems tantalizingly close, it could still be prevented by a quagmire of legal issues. Here’s why the Equal Rights Amendment has never been adopted—and how it became a controversial issue during the height of the feminist revolution of the 1970s thanks to an enormously influential political activist named Phyllis Schlafly.
https://www.history.com/news/equal-rights-amendment-fail-phyllis-schlafly
