Editing Equal Rights Amendment (section)

== Views ==

=== In support ===
Supporters of the ERA point to the lack of a specific guarantee in the Constitution for equal rights protections on the basis of sex.<ref>{{Cite web |title=ERA: Why |url=http://www.equalrightsamendment.org/why.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170419085629/http://www.equalrightsamendment.org/why.htm |archive-date=April 19, 2017 |access-date=April 6, 2017 |website=equalrightsamendment.org}}</ref> In 1973, future Supreme Court justice [[Ruth Bader Ginsburg]] summarized a supporting argument for the ERA in the ''[[American Bar Association Journal]]'':<blockquote>The equal rights amendment, in sum, would dedicate the nation to a new view of the rights and responsibilities of men and women. It firmly rejects sharp legislative lines between the sexes as constitutionally tolerable. Instead, it looks toward a legal system in which each person will be judged on the basis of individual merit and not on the basis of an unalterable trait of birth that bears no necessary relationship to need or ability.<ref name="Ginsburg 1973">{{Cite journal |last=Ginsburg |first=Ruth Bader |year=1973 |title=The Need for the Equal Rights Amendment |journal=American Bar Association Journal |volume=59 |issue=9 |pages=1013–1019 |jstor=25726416}}</ref></blockquote>

Later, Ginsburg voiced her opinion that the best course of action on the Equal Rights Amendment is to start over, due to being past its expiration date.<ref>{{cite news |last=de Vogue |first=Ariane |date=February 10, 2020 |title=Ruth Bader Ginsburg says deadline to ratify Equal Rights Amendment has expired: 'I'd like it to start over' |url=https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/10/politics/ruth-bader-ginsburg-equal-rights-amendment/index.html |publisher=[[CNN]]}}</ref> While at a discussion at Georgetown University in February 2020, Ginsburg noted the challenge that "if you count a latecomer on the plus side, how can you disregard states that said 'we've changed our minds?'"<ref>{{Cite web |last=Millhiser |first=Ian |date=February 11, 2020 |title=Ruth Bader Ginsburg probably just dealt a fatal blow to the Equal Rights Amendment |url=https://www.vox.com/2020/2/11/21133029/ruth-bader-ginsburg-equal-rights-amendment-supreme-court |website=Vox}}</ref><ref>[http://www.abajournal.com/web/article/justice-ginsburg-calls-for-renewed-effort-to-pass-equal-rights-amendment Justice Ginsburg calls for renewed effort to pass Equal Rights Amendment], [[ABA Journal]]</ref>

In the early 1940s, both the Democratic and Republican parties added support for the ERA to their platforms.<ref>{{Cite web |title=ERA: History |url=http://www.equalrightsamendment.org/history.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170410091210/http://equalrightsamendment.org/history.htm |archive-date=April 10, 2017 |access-date=April 11, 2017 |website=EqualRightsAmendment.org}}</ref>
[[File:Pro-ERA March during 1980 Republican National Convention (Detroit, Michigan).jpg|thumb|275x275px|Pro-ERA march at the 1980 Republican National Convention, the first presidential election year that the party dropped its support for the ERA in four decades<ref>{{Cite news |last=Feller |first=Madison |date=May 8, 2020 |title=Who is Jill Ruckelshaus, the Republican Feminist Played by Elizabeth Banks in Mrs. America? |url=https://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/a32134573/who-is-jill-ruckelshaus-mrs-america/ |access-date=July 31, 2020 |work=Elle}}</ref>]]
The [[National Organization for Women]] (NOW) and [[ERAmerica]], a coalition of almost 80 organizations, led the pro-ERA efforts. Between 1972 and 1982, ERA supporters held rallies, petitioned, picketed, went on hunger strikes, and performed acts of civil disobedience.<ref name="ERA: History" /> On July 9, 1978, NOW and other organizations hosted a national march in Washington, D.C., which garnered over 100,000 supporters, and was followed by a Lobby Day on July 10.<ref>{{Cite web |date=July 9, 2014 |title=July 9, 1978: Feminists Make History With Biggest-Ever March for the Equal Rights Amendment {{!}} Feminist Majority Foundation Blog |url=https://feminist.org/blog/index.php/2014/07/09/july-9-1978-feminists-make-history-with-biggest-ever-march-for-the-equal-rights-amendment |access-date=April 13, 2017 |website=feminist.org}}</ref> On June 6, 1982, NOW sponsored marches in states that had not passed the ERA including Florida, Illinois, North Carolina, and Oklahoma.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Williams |first=Winston |date=June 7, 1982 |title=THOUSANDS MARCH FOR EQUAL RIGHTS |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/06/07/us/thousands-march-for-equal-rights.html |access-date=April 13, 2017 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Key feminists of the time, such as [[Gloria Steinem]], spoke out in favor of the ERA, arguing that ERA opposition was based on gender myths that overemphasized difference and ignored evidence of unequal treatment between men and women.<ref>{{Cite web |title="All Our Problems Stem from the Same Sex Based Myths": Gloria Steinem Delineates American Gender Myths during ERA Hearings |url=http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/7025 |access-date=April 13, 2017 |website=History Matters}}</ref> A more militant feminist group, [[Grassroots Group of Second Class Citizens]], organized a series of non-violent direct action tactics in support of the ERA in Illinois in 1982.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Grassroots Group of Second Class Citizens/Women Rising in Resistance: publications about, 1988-1992 {{!}} HOLLIS for |url=https://hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu/repositories/8/archival_objects/3518113 |access-date=2022-07-24 |website=hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu}}</ref>

It has been noted that many African-American women have supported the ERA.<ref name="SEDWICK 24–29">{{Cite journal |last1=Sedwick |first1=Cathy |last2=Williams |first2=Reba |date=January 1, 1976 |title=Black Women and the Equal Rights Amendment |journal=The Black Scholar |volume=7 |issue=10 |pages=24–29 |doi=10.1080/00064246.1976.11413844 |jstor=41065957}}</ref> One prominent female supporter was New York representative [[Shirley Chisholm]]. On August 10, 1970, she gave a speech on the ERA called "For the Equal Rights Amendment" in Washington, D.C. In her address, she claimed that sex discrimination had become widespread and that the ERA would remedy it. She also claimed that laws to protect women in the workforce from unsafe working conditions would be needed by men, too, and thus the ERA would help all people.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm, "For the Equal Rights Amendment" (10 August 1970) |url=http://archive.vod.umd.edu/civil/chisholm1970int.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170424030341/http://archive.vod.umd.edu/civil/chisholm1970int.htm |archive-date=April 24, 2017 |access-date=April 13, 2017 |publisher=University of Maryland}}</ref> By 1976, 60% of African-American women and 63% of African-American men were in favor of the ERA, and the legislation was supported by organizations such as the [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People|NAACP]], [[National Council of Negro Women]], [[Coalition of Black Trade Unionists]], National Association of Negro Business, and the [[National Black Feminist Organization]].<ref name="SEDWICK 24–29" />

The ERA has been supported by several Republican women including [[Florence P. Dwyer|Florence Dwyer]], [[Jill Ruckelshaus]], [[Mary D. Crisp|Mary Dent Crisp]], Justice [[Sandra Day O'Connor]], First Lady [[Betty Ford]] and Senator [[Margaret Chase Smith]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Suk, Julie C. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1126670619 |title=We the women : the unstoppable mothers of the Equal Rights Amendment |date=August 11, 2020 |isbn=978-1-5107-5591-8 |publisher=Skyhorse Publishing |location=New York |oclc=1126670619}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-05-06 |title=Fact-checking 'Mrs. America': Jill Ruckelshaus and Schlafly's evangelical allies |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2020-05-06/mrs-america-fact-check-jill-ruckelshaus-lottie-beth-hobbs |access-date=2020-08-15 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=2020-09-29 |title=Let's honor justices Ginsburg and O'Connor by passing the ERA |url=https://www.azmirror.com/2020/09/29/lets-honor-justices-ginsburg-and-oconnor-by-passing-the-era/ |access-date=2021-03-02 |website=Arizona Mirror |language=en}}</ref> Support from Republican men has included President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]], President [[Richard Nixon]], Senator [[Richard Lugar]] and Senator [[Strom Thurmond]].<ref name="Ginsburg 1973" /><ref name="'70s 245" /><ref>{{cite journal |last=Kempker |first=Erin M. |date=2013 |title=Coalition and Control: Hoosier Feminists and the Equal Rights Amendment |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5250/fronjwomestud.34.2.0052 |journal=Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=52–82 |doi=10.5250/fronjwomestud.34.2.0052 |issn=0160-9009 |jstor=10.5250/fronjwomestud.34.2.0052 |s2cid=142331117}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Thurmond |first=Strom |date=1958-02-08 |title=Statement by Senator Strom Thurmond (D-SC) on Equal Rights Amendment for Women, 1958 February 8 |url=https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/strom/1810 |journal=Strom Thurmond Collection, MSS 100}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Greenhouse |first=Linda |title=Who Killed the ERA? |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2017/10/12/womens-rights-who-killed-era/ |access-date=2022-03-18 |journal=The New York Review of Books 2022 |language=en |issn=0028-7504}}</ref>

=== In opposition ===
[[File:Anti-ERA women dnd0215.jpg|thumb|Anti-ERA women watching a committee meeting of the Florida Senate in 1979, where consideration of the ERA was postponed, thus effectively killing the resolution for the 1979 session]]
Many opponents of the ERA focus on the importance of traditional gender roles. They argued that the amendment would guarantee the possibility that women would be subject to [[Conscription in the United States|conscription]] and be required to have military combat roles in future wars if it were passed. Defense of traditional [[gender role]]s proved to be a useful tactic. In Illinois, supporters of [[Phyllis Schlafly]], a [[Conservatism in the United States|conservative]] Republican activist from Missouri, used traditional symbols of the American [[housewife]]. They took homemade bread, jams, and apple pies to the state legislators, with the slogans, "Preserve us from a Congressional jam; Vote against the ERA sham" and "I am for Mom and apple pie."<ref name="Rosenberg225">{{cite book |last=Rosenberg |first=Rosalind |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h-GMcnUaLhEC&pg=PA225 |title=Divided Lives: American Women in the Twentieth Century |date=2008 |publisher=Hill & Wang |isbn=978-0-8090-1631-0 |page=225}}</ref> They appealed to married women by stressing that the amendment would invalidate protective laws such as alimony and eliminate the tendency for mothers to obtain custody over their children in divorce cases.<ref>{{cite book |last=Rhode |first=Deborah L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S1qosJPdqPkC&pg=PA66 |title=Justice and Gender: Sex Discrimination and the Law |date=2009 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-04267-4 |pages=66–67}}</ref> It was suggested that single-sex bathrooms would be eliminated and same-sex couples would be able to get married if the amendment were passed.<ref name="washingtonpost.com">{{Cite news |last=Eilperin |first=Juliet |date=March 27, 2007 |title=New Drive Afoot to Pass Equal Rights Amendment |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/27/AR2007032702357_pf.html |access-date=April 13, 2017 |newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref> Women who supported traditional gender roles started to oppose the ERA.<ref name="kllap">{{Cite web |title=The Equal Rights Amendment |url=http://www.ushistory.org/us/57c.asp |website=ushistory.org |publisher=Independence Hall Association}}</ref> Schlafly said passage of the amendment would threaten [[Social Security (United States)|Social Security]] benefits for housewives.<ref name="washingtonpost.com" /> Opponents also argued that men and women were already equal enough with the passage of the [[Equal Pay Act of 1963]] and the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Digital History |url=http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtid=2&psid=3345 |access-date=April 13, 2017 |website=digitalhistory.uh.edu}}</ref> and that women's colleges would have to admit men. Schlafly's argument that protective laws would be lost resonated with working-class women.<ref>{{cite book |last=Rosenberg |first=Rosalind |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h-GMcnUaLhEC&pg=PA225 |title=Divided Lives: American Women in the Twentieth Century |date=2008 |publisher=Hill & Wang |isbn=978-0-8090-1631-0 |pages=225–26}}</ref>

[[File:Activist Phyllis Schafly wearing a %22Stop ERA%22 badge, demonstrating with other women against the Equal Rights Amendment in front of the White House, Washington, D.C. (42219314092).jpg |upright=0.85|thumb|left|[[Phyllis Schlafly]], a conservative activist, organized opposition to the ERA and argued that it "would lead to women being drafted by the military and to [[unisex public toilet|public unisex bathrooms]]".<ref name="eilperin">{{Cite news |last=Eilperin |first=Juliet |title=New Drive Afoot to Pass Equal Rights Amendment |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/27/AR2007032702357_pf.html |access-date=May 22, 2010 |newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref>]]
At the [[1980 Republican National Convention]], the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]] platform was amended to end its support for the ERA.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Perlez |first=Jane |date=May 17, 1984 |title=Plan to omit rights amendment from platform brings objections |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/05/17/us/plan-to-omit-rights-amendment-from-platform-brings-objections.html |access-date=July 24, 2013 |work=The New York Times}}</ref> The most prominent opponent of the ERA was Schlafly. Leading the Stop ERA campaign, Schlafly defended traditional gender roles and would often attempt to incite feminists by opening her speeches with lines such as, "I'd like to thank my husband for letting me be here tonight—I always like to say that, because it makes the libs so mad."<ref>Critchlow, p. 247</ref> When Schlafly began her campaign in 1972, public polls showed support for the amendment was widely popular and thirty states had ratified the amendment by 1973. After 1973, the number of ratifying states slowed to a trickle. Support in the states that had not ratified fell below 50%.{{sfn|Mansbridge|page=214}} Public opinion in key states shifted against the ERA as its opponents, operating on the local and state levels, won over the public. The state legislators in battleground states followed public opinion in rejecting the ERA.{{sfn|Critchlow and Stachecki|page=157}}

Phyllis Schlafly was a key player in the defeat. Political scientist [[Jane Mansbridge]] in her history of the ERA argues that the draft issue was the single most powerful argument used by Schlafly and the other opponents to defeat ERA.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Mansbridge |first=Jane |year=1984 |title=Who's in Charge Here? Decision by Accretion and Gatekeeping in the Struggle for the ERA |journal=Politics & Society |volume=13 |pages=343–382 |doi=10.1177/003232928401300401 |s2cid=153562883 |number=4}}</ref> Mansbridge concluded, "Many people who followed the struggle over the ERA believed—rightly in my view—that the Amendment would have been ratified by 1975 or 1976 had it not been for Phyllis Schlafly's early and effective effort to organize potential opponents."{{sfn|Mansbridge|page=110}} Legal scholar [[Joan C. Williams]] maintained, "ERA was defeated when Schlafly turned it into a war among women over gender roles."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Williams |first=Joan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SxtNubyWAEMC&pg=PA147 |title=Unbending Gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and What To Do About It |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-19-984047-2 |page=147}}</ref> Historian Judith Glazer-Raymo asserted:

<blockquote>As moderates, we thought we represented the forces of reason and goodwill but failed to take seriously the power of the family values argument and the single-mindedness of Schlafly and her followers. The ERA's defeat seriously damaged the women's movement, destroying its momentum and its potential to foment social change... Eventually, this resulted in feminist dissatisfaction with the Republican Party, giving the Democrats a new source of strength that when combined with overwhelming minority support, helped elect Bill Clinton to the presidency in 1992 and again in 1996.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Glazer-Raymo |first=Judith |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pTWzBcW07RwC&pg=PA19 |title=Shattering the Myths: Women in Academe |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-8018-6641-8 |page=19}}</ref></blockquote>

The [[John Birch Society]] and its members organized opposition to the ERA in multiple states. According to Professor Edward H. Miller, the group played a key role in addition to Schlafly in preventing the amendment's ratification.<ref name="Miller2021">{{cite book |last=Miller |first=Edward H. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tZxNEAAAQBAJ |title=A Conspiratorial Life: Robert Welch, the John Birch Society, and the Revolution of American Conservatism |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=2021 |isbn=978-0226449050 |location=Chicago |pages=347–351}}</ref>

Many ERA supporters blamed their defeat on [[Advocacy group|special interest]] forces, especially the insurance industry and conservative organizations, suggesting that they had funded an opposition that subverted the democratic process and the will of the pro-ERA majority.{{sfn|Critchlow and Stachecki|page=157–158}} Such supporters argued that while the public face of the anti-ERA movement was Phyllis Schlafly and her STOP ERA organization, there were other important groups in the opposition as well, such as the powerful National Council of Catholic Women, [[Labor feminism|labor feminists]]{{citation needed |date=May 2018}} and (until 1973) the [[AFL–CIO]]. Steinem blamed the insurance industry and said Schlafly "did not change one vote."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Blake |first=Meredith |date=June 26, 2020 |title=Gloria Steinem calls out 'Mrs. America' 'hopelessly wrong.' This play gets her life's work right |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2020-06-26/gloria-steinem-christine-lahti-great-performances-mrs-america |access-date=April 4, 2021 |work=[[Los Angeles Times]]}}</ref> Opposition to the amendment was particularly high among religious conservatives, who argued that the amendment would guarantee universal abortion rights and the right for homosexual couples to marry.<ref name="Francis ERA History">{{Cite web |last=Francis |first=Roberta W. |title=The History Behind the Equal Rights Amendment |url=http://www.equalrightsamendment.org/history.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140217020202/http://www.equalrightsamendment.org/history.htm |archive-date=February 17, 2014 |access-date=January 4, 2014 |website=Equal Rights Amendment |publisher=Alice Paul Institute}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Brady |first1=David W. |last2=Tedin |first2=Kent L. |year=1976 |title=Ladies in Pink: Religion and Political Ideology in the Anti-ERA Movement |journal=Social Science Quarterly |volume=56 |pages=564–75 |number=4}}</ref> Critchlow and Stachecki say the anti-ERA movement was based on strong backing among Southern whites, Evangelical Christians, members of [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]], [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox Jews]], and [[Catholic Church in the United States|Roman Catholics]], including both men and women.{{sfn|Critchlow and Stachecki|page=160}}

The ERA has long been opposed by [[anti-abortion]] groups who believe it would be interpreted to allow legal abortion without limits and taxpayer funding for abortion.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Russell-Kraft |first=Stephanie |date=July 28, 2018 |title=Wanna Save Roe v. Wade? Don't Look To The Courts |url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/wanna-save-roe-v-wade-dont-look-to-the-courts |website=The Daily Beast}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Pope |first=Michael |date=September 10, 2018 |title=Virginia Becomes Battleground Over Equal Rights Amendment |url=https://www.wvtf.org/post/virginia-becomes-battleground-over-equal-rights-amendment |publisher=WVTF}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Will Virginia be next to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment? |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/will-virginia-be-next-to-ratify-the-equal-rights-amendment/2018/12/28/3dd7131a-0ad2-11e9-8942-0ef442e59094_story.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190111055109/https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/will-virginia-be-next-to-ratify-the-equal-rights-amendment/2018/12/28/3dd7131a-0ad2-11e9-8942-0ef442e59094_story.html |archive-date=January 11, 2019 |newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref>