For the Equal Rights Amendment

The proposed amendment at the center of Shirley Chisholm’s speech is House Joint Resolution 264, or the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). The text of the Equal Rights Amendment reads: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article” (Cohen, Alex and Wilfred U. Codrington III. “The Equal Rights Amendment Explained.” Brennan Center for Justice, 2020).

The ERA was first proposed in 1923 by Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman, two women who were active in the suffrage movement. However, conflicting ideas within the early 20th century’s feminist movement prevented the proposal from gaining widespread support. Alice Paul’s National Women’s Party believed that women should be treated equally in all areas of life. Meanwhile, the Women’s Joint Congressional Committee asserted that women should retain gender-related benefits such as shorter working hours to prevent their exploitation. Over the next 49 years, the amendment was introduced and blocked in Congress many times.

During the 1960s, the ERA received more support as the women's movement in the United States gained momentum. Betty Friedan and a group of activists formed the National Organization for Women (NOW), demanding full equality for both men and women in America. By the late 1960s, NOW had become a powerful force in political lobbying, leading the issue to be debated during the 91st Congress (1969-1970). Martha Griffiths, a women’s rights advocate and member of the US House of Representatives was instrumental in getting the amendment past the committee stage to a vote in the House. The ERA was finally passed by both chambers of Congress in 1972, but in order to be approved by Congress and officially become law, it had to be ratified by three-fourths of the states—a total of 38. For the ERA, Congress set a seven-year deadline for this ratification process to be completed, eventually extending the deadline to 10 years. Although 30 states ratified the amendment within one year of its passage, opposition movements to the ERA began to gain momentum.

Phyllis Schlafly, a prominent conservative activist, led a successful countermovement against the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) during the 1970s. She argued that the ERA would undermine traditional family values and lead to negative consequences for women, such as the elimination of legal protections for mothers and wives, the drafting of women into the military, and the loss of alimony and child support rights in divorce cases. Schlafly mobilized conservative women, particularly stay-at-home mothers and homemakers, to oppose the ERA. She founded STOP ERA (Stop Taking Our Privileges) and traveled nationwide to rally support, building alliances with conservative politicians and religious organizations opposed to abortion and feminism. Schlafly's countermovement played a key role in preventing the ERA from being ratified by the required number of states and causing five states to revoke their ratifications. By the deadline, only 35 states upheld the amendment, and it failed to become law.

In recent years, support for the ERA has resurfaced, with even more states holding (largely symbolic) ratification votes—surpassing the 38-state threshold for ratification. Though the deadline has long passed, it is possible that a future Congress will choose to reintroduce the Equal Rights Amendment. Many feminist campaigners consider this a worthwhile effort as there continues to be a lack of clear constitutional protection for American women. Consequently, the rights second-wave feminists helped to achieve, such as equal pay and reproductive control, are vulnerable to repeal. This point was illustrated in June 2022 when the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, retracting women’s constitutional right to abortion.