Equal Rights Amendment

The Equal Rights Amendment reads: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account of sex.”

The E.R.A. was first proposed in 1923 but wasn't passed by Congress until 1972. It then needed to be ratified by 38 states by 1982 to be added to the Constitution, but only 35 states ratified it in time.

Since 1978, attempts have been made in Congress to extend or remove the deadline. The deadline was successfully extended for three years, until 1982, but no new states ratified it in that time, and for decades the ERA has sadly been dormant.

The Equal Rights Amendment was reintroduced in Congress on July 14, 1982 and has been introduced before every session of Congress since then as the movement to ratify the ERA continues.

Nevada ratified the amendment in 2017, and Illinois did so in 2018; Virginia, then, would be the crucial 38th state on January 15, 2020. Even though this was beyond the 3-year deadline imposed in 1982, proponents kept moving forward, as the proposed deadline was considered arbitrary.

On February 13th, 2020 the house passed a resolution to eliminate the 1982 deadline to clear the way for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment! Success? Not so fast!

It’s no surprise that Senator McConnell has not made any effort to bring it to a vote on the Senate floor.

Equally disturbing, our own Congressman Tom McClintock voted NOT to remove the deadline of the Equal Rights Amendment in an effort to put an end to the QUEST to affirm equal rights for women.

How disputable is that? Why can’t women have equal rights under the law? Why has it taken almost 100 years for women to attain equal rights! It’s so barbaric.