Popularized during the height of the contemporary women's movement, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) has been the subject of heated debates since its inception in 1923, particularly during the 1970s. Read the sources, including the text of the ERA itself, in order to define the ERA and to classify the reasons it has historically been difficult to ratify.

Clarifying Questions

• When did the contemporary women's movement occur?
• How do you ratify an amendment?
• Why might there be opposition to the ERA?

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Vocabulary

• Equal Rights Amendment: an amendment originally introduced in 1923 to provide equal rights to women as those granted to men; the amendment received traction in the 1970s but failed to receive enough state endorsements for ratification.
• Nineteenth Amendment: an amendment ratified in 1920 granting the right to vote to women.
• ratification: process of formally approving constitutional amendments.
• League of Women Voters: an organization that was established by suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt in the months preceding the formal ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment and was aimed at getting women more directly involved in the voting process.
• Phyllis Schlafly: a conservative activist who founded Stop ERA, an organization aimed at preventing the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment.

Background Information

Despite receiving the right to vote in 1920 under the Nineteenth Amendment, women's economic, educational, and social advancements have lagged far behind those of men. Ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment did not automatically bring economic or social equity. In response to a lack of progress, some radical women suffragists sought to bring immediate socioeconomic equality through an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, specifically the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which was introduced in 1923. Interest in the ERA came from a small, vocal minority for several decades after it was introduced, and the amendment remained unratified. With the advent of the contemporary women's movement in the 1960s–1970s, support for the ERA grew, reaching the height of support during the 1970s and early 1980s. Despite wide-ranging support, however, a vocal opposition and challenges presented by the ratification process were roadblocks to the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment.