Why did the ERA fail

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Why did the ERA fail?
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Recap

• National Womens Party (led by Alice Paul) began
  lobbying for an Equal Rights Amendment in 1921
• First introduced to Congress in 1923
• Men and women shall have equal rights throughout
  the United States and every place subject to its
  jurisdiction.
• Supported by professional women, who allied with
  pro-business congressmen
• Opposed by pro-labor women who had fought for
  protective labor legislation

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Opposition on the left declines

• NOW takes up the campaign
• 1967 pledges to work for the ERA
• Organized labor gets behind the ERA
• NEA and UAW back the ERA in 1971
• AFL-CIO backs the ERA in 1973
• Why the change?
• Protective legislation for women gradually comes
  to seem unnecessary
• New Deal legislation had extended protective
  labor legislation to all workers
• By 1970, the average age of working women had
  risen
• Types of jobs they were filling had changed
• Growing resentment of sex-specific protectionism
• Women workers now wanted equal opportunity

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Opposition on the right grows

• Rise of the New Right
• 1972 Nixon wins in a landslide
• ERA comes to be viewed as anti-business
• Potential to benefit working women by addressing
  wage discrepancies
• Raised the specter of big government
  intervention and social engineering
• desexegration

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On the path to ratificationnot

• ERA enjoyed broad, bipartisan support
• Polls indicated that a majority of Americans
  supported the ERA
• Congress passed the ERA in March 1972
• House 354 to 23 Senate 84 to 8
• By the Spring of 1973, 32 (of the needed 38)
  state legislatures had ratified the ERA
• Then the momentum began to slow
• Congress extended the deadline to 1982, but by
  then only 35 states had ratified, and the ERA died

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Equal Rights Amendment

• 1. "Equality of rights under the law shall not be
  denied or abridged by the U.S. or by any State on
  account of sex."
• 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce,
  by appropriate legislation, the provisions of
  this article.
• 3. The amendment shall take effect two years
  after the date of ratification

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ERA supporters in Detroit, 1981
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What happened?

• Difficulty of ratifying constitutional amendments
• ERA defeated by the South
• Hostility toward federal government
• Support for the ERA more shallow than it first
  appeared
• Most Americans supported equal rights
• But when recast as an issue of changing gender
  roles, support fell

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Phyllis Schlafly

• Catholic graduated from Radcliffe College
• Right-wing, Republican Party activist
• Worked within the National Federation of
  Republican women
• Complained of sex discrimination within the
  Republican Party
• Broke away to form an independent, conservative
  womens movement
• 1972 STOP ERA (Stop Taking Our Privileges)
• Developed an effective grassroots movement

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Phyllis Schlafly
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STOP ERA

• ERA would hurt rather than help women
• Mens Liberation Amendment
• Would rob homemakers of security
• States could no longer require husbands to
  support their wives
• Divorced wives could no longer count on alimony,
  child care
• Womens colleges could no longer receive
  government funding
• Women could no longer be exempted from the draft
• ERA would blur gender distinctions
• Unisex bathrooms
• ERA would shift power away from the states

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• Florida state senator Lori Wilson, sponsor of
  the ERA Amendment, after its defeat in her state
  in 1977

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Today Womens Equality Amendment

• Opponents argue
• Its redundant
• Discrimination should be addressed through
  legislation
• Supporters argue
• Its a question of principle
• Women need constitutional protection because
  social/political climate can change
• Women still lack equality in numerous areas