Editing Equal Rights Amendment (section)

==== Initial opposition from the New Deal Democrats ====
[[Eleanor Roosevelt]] and most [[New Deal]]ers opposed the ERA. They felt that ERA was designed for middle-class women, but that working-class women needed government protection. They also feared that the ERA would undercut the male-dominated labor unions that were a core component of the [[New Deal coalition]]. Most Northern [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrats]], who aligned themselves with the anti-ERA labor unions, opposed the amendment.<ref name="'70s 245" />

The ERA was also opposed by the [[American Federation of Labor]] and other labor unions, which feared the amendment would invalidate protective labor legislation for women. The [[League of Women Voters]], formerly the [[National American Woman Suffrage Association]], opposed the Equal Rights Amendment until 1972, fearing the loss of protective labor legislation.<ref name=":2" />

At the [[1944 Democratic National Convention]], the Democrats made the divisive step of including the ERA in their platform, but this was a hotly contested change not reflected in later party platforms.<ref name="'70s 245" /> At the [[1960 Democratic National Convention|Democratic National Convention in 1960]], a proposal to endorse the ERA was rejected after it was opposed by groups including the [[American Civil Liberties Union]]<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/annualreportamer00amer_2/page/106/mode/2up |title=Clearing the Main Channels, ACLU's 1954–55 Annual Report |publisher=American Civil Liberties Union <!-- |others=University of Alberta Libraries --> |year=1955 |pages=106–107}}</ref> (ACLU), the [[AFL-CIO]], labor unions such as the [[American Federation of Teachers]], [[Americans for Democratic Action]] (ADA), the [[American Nurses Association]], the Women's Division of the [[Methodist Church (USA)|Methodist Church]], and the National Councils of Jewish, Catholic, and Negro Women.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LF8ov6Vc4YQC&pg=PA209 |title=A Room at a Time: How Women Entered Party Politics |last=Freeman |first=Jo |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-8476-9805-9 |page=209 |author-link=Jo Freeman}}</ref> 

Between 1948 and 1970, chairman [[Emanuel Celler]] of the House Judiciary Committee, refused to consider the ERA in the House of Representatives.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Neale |first=Thomas |date=December 23, 2019 |title=Congressional Research Service, Proposed Equal Rights Amendment: Contemporary Ratification Issues |url=https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R42979}}</ref>