The amendment that nearly changed the Constitution but stalled in the states

Cultures · Published 2 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: For decades, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was the ultimate goal for women's rights activists. It sought to enshrine a simple principle into the Constitution: that sex should not determine legal rights. Yet, despite passing both houses of Congress, it faced a grueling, decades-long battle for ratification that remains a landmark of American legislative history.

First introduced in 1923—just three years after the 19th Amendment granted women the right to vote—the ERA aimed to eliminate legal distinctions between men and women in areas like divorce, property, and employment. While activists like Winifred Claire Stanley and the "Mother of the ERA," Martha Griffiths, championed the cause, the bill faced immediate pushback. By 1945, opposition organizations were already urging the Judiciary Committee to block it, fearing that women would lose specific protections or be forced into compulsory military service.

The movement gained significant momentum in the 1970s. Representative Martha Griffiths famously used a discharge petition to force the bill out of committee and onto the House floor. In 1972, Congress finally passed the ERA, submitting it to the states with an original seven-year ratification deadline. It gained rapid support, with 30 states ratifying it within a single year. However, intense opposition from conservative religious and political groups brought the process to a standstill, leading to a high-stakes fight in the late 1970s to extend the deadline to 1982.

The ERA ultimately fell three states short of the 38 required for ratification before the 1982 deadline passed. While the amendment is not currently part of the Constitution, the fight continues. Supporters argue that the failure to adopt the measure left a negative mandate for the courts, while others point to subsequent legal victories, such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as the primary drivers of equality. Today, the status of the ERA remains a subject of ongoing debate regarding whether a rescinded deadline could still allow it to become the 28th Amendment.

The ERA's history highlights a fundamental tension in American law: whether equality is best achieved through explicit constitutional mandates or through gradual judicial and legislative evolution. By seeking to invalidate all state and federal laws that discriminate based on sex, the ERA proposed a sweeping structural change that many feared would dismantle the domestic protections of the era.

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