The ERA may finally get its moment

In 1972, the Equal Rights Amendment passed both houses of Congress, needing only ratification by 38 states to come into law. Around that same time, anti-ERA activists decried the amendment, saying it would lead to things like gender-neutral bathrooms, same-sex marriage, and women in combat. The ratification failed. The move toward progress clearly did not.

Still, a passage of the amendment would further solidify the rights of woman as equal to men, as spelled out by the constitution. This would affect everything from the protection of women in the workplace to the prosecution of cases of violence against women. And now, after nearly 100 years under debate, the ERA may finally become a reality.

With the election of a Democratic majority on Tuesday, Virginia is poised to become the 38th—and final—state to ratify the ERA and make it a reality.

“It's high time we include the women of this country in the Constitution of the United States,” Virginia State Senate Democratic leader Dick Saslaw told an enthusiastic crowd Tuesday evening. 

The two co-presidents of the ERA Coalition, Jessica Neuwirth and Carol Jenkins (both former Women’ Media Center board members), said late Tuesday that “we are finally within reach of true equality for girls and women in the United States, thanks to the voters of Virginia and supporters across the country.”

While certain protective federal and state laws for women do exist, they can be rolled back at any time, unlike a constitutional amendment. The ERA’s main clause reads: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on the account of sex.” First introduced by activist Alice Paul in the wake of the 1920 passage of the 19th amendment, which gave women the right to vote, the ERA has been through Congress many times and, while it has repeatedly failed, there has long been widespread public support for the measure.

The ERA Coalition’s polling shows that as of 2016, 94 percent of Americans supported the ERA—90 percent of men and 96 percent of women. The last barrier besides a final state is a 7-year expiration date Congress imposed on the measure in 1972. While the deadline was later extended to 1982 and still presumably lies in place, The New York Times reported that "a 2013 report by the Congressional Research Service, a policy research branch, said that Congress could simply vote to change the old deadline."

Then all the amendment needs is for one last state, aka Virginia, to ensure that equality for all is part of the permanent bedrock of the United States.