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What Was the Era? Who First Started the Campaign for This?

The Equal Rights Amendment was the major focus of women’s organisations from 1970 wanting an amendment to the constitution to include sex so that women were not denied equality constitutionally.

The wording was simple:

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

  • After the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, the NWP and its supporters refocused their efforts on other discriminatory processes.
  • Alice Paul of the NWP (National Woman’s Party), inspired by British suffragettes, proposed in 1921 that ‘Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States.’
  • This so called ‘Lucretia Mott Amendment’ later reworded, was unanimously approved by the party’s convention in Seneca Falls, in
  • Seen as a continuation of women’s suffrage and seizing their rights.

Opposition to the ERA

For the next 50 years, Alice Paul’s campaign failed to come to fruition.

Many congressmen took the view that the 14th Amendment (1868) already gave women sufficient guarantee of equal protection under the law.

There was opposition from outside of Congress, representatives of organised labour argued that the ERA would get rid of some preferential protections for women in work:

  • In certain industries women were guaranteed shorter working hours and minimum wages, and other provisions such as how much weight a woman could lift.

The NWP derided this reasoning as patronising and ‘a mask of altruism’.

  • Below the surface lay the concern that equal employment rights for women would harm the employment rights of men, so that wages would be driven down, and female labour would prove harder to unionise.

Melinda Scott from the National Women’s Trade Union League pointed out to the NWP, that because of the class divide, they didn’t know the difference between an 8-hour day and a 10 hour one.

  • Whilst the number of women employed and involved in higher education rose after the war-years, women seemed mostly unconcerned with the absence of constitutional assurances.
  • As such, membership of the NWP declined.

Presidents Opinions on the ERA

  • During the Depression in the 1930s, Roosevelt had no desire to offend labour unions and gave his full support to existing protective legislation for female employees.
  • Truman (45-53) and Eisenhower (53-61) endorsed the ‘equality of rights’ without linking it to the ERA.
  • Kennedy (61-63) in 1961, set up the Commission on the Status of Women, headed by Eleanor Roosevelt. Its final report in 1963, found that the 14th and 15th Amendments gave adequate constitutional protection, and that protective legislation should be strengthened.
  • With the growing AA civil rights campaign in the 1960s, both Kennedy and Johnson pointedly refused to equate racial and sexual discrimination.

Pressure for Change in the 1960s

Over a third of discriminatory complaints received by the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) in 1965, were founded on gender issues.

Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC)

  • Federal agency created through the 1964 Civil Rights Act, to administer and enforce laws against workplace discrimination.
  • The growth of women’s rights organisations in the 1960s and 70s marked the emergence of feminism as a political force in America.
  • With the formation of NOW in 1967, the campaign for the ERA was revived.
    • Every year from 1923 to 1970, a proposal to pass the amendment had been made, but only in 1972, as a result of increased pressure from NOW and other women’s groups, did it get to the state of debate in Congress.
  • (It had gotten to both houses in 1950 and 1953, but with a provision that stated that women would not lose special benefits. To supporters this was not true equality, and unacceptable.)At the same time, legislation in Congress was beginning to take place.
    • The Civil Rights Act of 1964, forbidding discrimination in employment on grounds of race, colour, religion and most importantly, sex.
    • The Equal Pay Act of 1963, prohibiting wage discrimination based on sex.

    These two acts reversed the principal objection of labour unions to the ERA, that women would face unequal unemployment. Labour unions now joined the campaign for the ERA.

    The combination of these two acts, was interpreted by the federal courts as having affected the repeal of all protective legislation for women.

    In February 1970, supporters picketed Congress and disturbed a congressional committee, demanding a hearing on the ERA.

    In August of 1970, Betty Friedan and members of NOW organised the Women’s Strike for Equality, 50 years after the 19th

    • With 50,000 strikers in New York City and others across the country.
    • Along with support from Martha Griffiths (Democrat congresswoman), the Amendment was resoundingly endorsed, and an edited version exempting women from the draft passed Congress.
  • (The movement coincided with demonstrations against the Vietnam War.)
  • There were some objections that since the ERA offered no new protections to women, it would infringe on privacy in schools, restrooms and prisons.
    • However, the movement was so strong that in October 1971 it was passed by the House of Representatives by 354 votes to 23.
    • And in March 1972, Senate approved it by 84 votes to 8.
    • President Nixon also accepted the measure.
      • Even though the ERA passed both houses of Congress, it was never fully ratified by the states. ¾, or 38 states had to ratify the Amendment.The campaign by NOW was highly successful.On average, opinion polls taken from 1970-1982 showed that it was backed by a majority of American citizens, ranging from 74% to 51%.Failure to Ratify
      • 6 states ratified the Amendment within 48 hours, 15 within a month, and 30 within a year.
    • But progress stalled, only 35 states had ratified it by 1977.The deadline Congress had set of 1979 was extended to 1982. But not another state endorsed the proposal in the next 3 years.The final count of 35/38 meant that the Amendment could not be passed.The work of Phyllis Schlafly and social change were the main reason for the failure.

      Opposition to the ERA

      Firstly, by 1972 the law had become virtually gender neutral, so people no longer saw the appeal of the ERA.

      • The 14th Amendment, Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Equal Pay Act of 1963, were all seen as effectively against discrimination.

      Federal court rulings on social security and maternity leave issues favoured equalisation of both male and female rights.

    • Supporters of the ERA argued that females were still discriminated against in some careers, and for promotions, but they struggled to demonstrate this inequality and that it could even be legislated for.
  • Some states also passed their own legislation conferring rights equivalent to those promised by the ERA.3 of these states, Illinois, Utah and Virginia had refused to ratify the ERA.Conservative groups were one of the main reasons for some states failing to ratify.
    • For example, the John Birch Society, which already had a record of opposing civil rights reforms, called the ERA ‘communist plans.’
    • The Happiness of Womanhood group, created specifically to oppose the ERA, expressed the view that the Amendment would lead to the legitimisation of homosexuality, gay marriage and adoption.
    • Most significantly, Phyllis Schlafly and the STOP ERA campaign
    • Phyllis Schlafly was a conservative journalist, writing in support of family values and against feminism in Illinois.She believed the real right of a woman was the right to stay at home.
      • She managed to mobilise popular support against the ratification.
      • She started campaigning in 1972, when 30 states had already ratified the ERA.
      • Her campaign was focused in the fundamentalist south and Mormon states, where resistance was already strong.
      • ‘We oppose the equal rights amendment’ ‘because we are for women’s rights.’ She claimed.She argued:
        • The ERA would deny a woman’s existing legal right to be supported by her husband.
        • Privacy rights would be overturned, and public restrooms would be instituted.
        • Single sex schools and colleges would be outlawed.
        • Women would be drafted into the military and sent into active combat.
        • The ERA would challenge maternal preference in child custody cases.
        • Abortion rights and homosexual rights, including gay marriage, would be upheld.
        • Alimony could be threatened for older women.

        The ERA was seen as a measure for younger single women, competing with men for jobs rather than older or working-class women who needed such special protections.

        She expressed the view that American women were immensely privileged.

      • Roe v. Wade January 1973Supreme court ruling that disallowed most state and federal restrictions on abortion.
        • To feminists, this was a victory for the women’s movement.
        • ERA supporters hoped that the judgement would settle the abortion issue and neutralise the Stop ERA’s argument that the Amendment would favour abortion, as the Supreme Court had already ruled as such.
        • The decision was seen as supporting the rights of women over their own bodies, and over attitudes which denied them freedom
          • The silent majority was incredibly powerful, and the divisions within women had become one of the biggest barriers to change.
            • However, Roe v. Wade created a furious national debate that polarised opinion. By linking abortion with the ERA, Schlafly was able to effectively control the southern states, and Catholic Illinois especially.

          Nixon (69-74) went the furthest in advocating the Amendment, endorsing it to Republican leaders in the Senate.

          Dwindling Support in the 80s and 90s

          Carter (77-81) promised to use his influence to back the ERA and supported the extended deadline, but not a single additional state voted for the Amendment in his presidency.

          Reagan, as a Republican, was antipathetic to the cause. The Republicans withdrew their support in the 1980s.

          • From the 80s onwards, Presidents felt that there was little electoral advantage to be gained by backing the amendment.
          • Supporters of the ERA failed to recognise that they needed support from the states, not just popular opinion.
          • The 14th Amendment was seen as already sufficiently protecting women’s rights.