ERA considered by the states for ratification (1 Jan 1972 Jahr – 31 Dez 1982 Jahr)

Beschreibung:

Equal RIghts Amendment (ERA): Constitutional amendment passed by Congress in 1972 that would require equal treatment of men and women under federal and state law. Facing fierce opposition from the New Right and the Republican Party, the ERA was defeated as time ran out for state ratification in 1982


STOP ERA: An organization founded by Phyllis Schlafly in 1972 to fight the Equal Rights Amendment.

Although the civil rights movement continued and flourished into the 1970s, its major achievements had come a decade earlier. In contrast, the women’s and gay rights movements had just begun to gain momentum at the dawn of the new decade. With its three influential wings — liberal, radical, and women of color (see “Women’s Liberation and Black and Chicana Feminism” in Chapter 27) — the women’s movement inspired both grassroots activism and legislative action across the nation. As women won notable gains, gay activists faced a fundamental set of challenges: they needed to convince Americans that same-sex relationships were natural and that gay men and lesbians deserved the equal protection of the law. Neither movement achieved all of its aims in this era, but each made meaningful progress toward equality.

The first half of the 1970s marked the peak of the women’s liberation movement. Taking a dizzying array of forms — from lobbying legislatures to marching in the streets and establishing all-female collectives — women’s liberation produced activism on the scale of the earlier black-led civil rights movement. Women’s centers, as well as women-run child-care facilities, began to spring up in cities and towns. Feminist art and poetry movements flourished. Women challenged the admissions policies of all-male colleges and universities — opening such prestigious schools as Yale and Columbia and nearly bringing an end to male-only institutions entirely. The ever-increasing number of female scholars began to transform higher education: by studying women’s history, pushing for the hiring of more women faculty, and by founding women’s studies programs.


Women’s liberationists drew a new attention to the female body — and turned it into a political battleground. Inspired by the Boston collective that published the groundbreaking book Our Bodies, Ourselves, the first medical/health book to focus entirely on women, the women’s health movement founded dozens of medical clinics, encouraged women to become physicians, and educated millions of women about their bodies. Activists pushed against antiabortion laws in more than thirty state legislatures. Women’s liberationists established rape crisis centers around the nation and lobbied state legislatures and Congress to reform sexual assault laws. Many of these efforts began as shoestring operations in living rooms and kitchens: Our Bodies, Ourselves was first published as a 35-cent mimeographed booklet, and the antirape movement began in small consciousness-raising groups that met in churches and community centers. By the end of the decade, many grassroots organizations had gone national and improved the lives of millions of American women in the process.


Buoyed by this flourishing of activism, the women’s movement renewed the fight for an Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the Constitution. First introduced in 1923, the ERA stated, in its entirety, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account of sex.” Vocal congressional women from the Democratic Party, such as Patsy Mink (Hawaii), Bella Abzug (New York), and Shirley Chisholm (New York), found enthusiastic male allies — among both Democrats and Republicans — and Congress passed the amendment in 1972. Within just two years, thirty-four of the necessary thirty-eight states had ratified it, and the ERA appeared headed for adoption. While no one could predict what changes the amendment would bring — courts would have to interpret and apply its broad language — the ERA’s advocates believed it would usher in an era of gender equality in employment and education, as well as between men and women in the household. But then, progress abruptly halted (Map 28.2).

Stopping the ratification of the ERA was largely the work of a remarkable woman: Phyllis Schlafly, a lawyer long active in conservative causes. Despite her own flourishing legal career, Schlafly believed in traditional roles for women. The ERA, she argued in her many public appearances, would create an unnatural “unisex society,” with women drafted into the army and forced to use unisex restrooms. Schlafly organized the STOP ERA group in 1972, mobilizing thousands of women to demonstrate at statehouses wielding home-baked bread and apple pies. The label on the baked goods at one anti-ERA rally captured their views: “My heart and hand went into this dough / For the sake of the family please vote no.”The message resonated widely, especially among those troubled by the rapid pace of social change (see “Firsthand Accounts”). The ERA never was ratified, despite a congressional extension of the deadline to June 30, 1982.

The ratifying process for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) went smoothly in 1972 and 1973 but then stalled. The turning point came in 1976, when ERA advocates lobbied extensively, particularly in Florida, North Carolina, and Illinois, but failed to sway the conservative legislatures in those states. After Indiana ratified in 1977, the amendment still lacked three votes toward the three-fourths majority needed for adoption. Efforts to revive the ERA in the 1980s were unsuccessful, and it became a dead issue.


Phyllis Schlafly, leader of the organization STOP ERA, leading a rally at the Illinois State Capitol in 1978, at a time when the state legislature was considering whether to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. Schlafly described herself as a housewife and called her decades-long strenuous political career a hobby.

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