Equal Rights Amendment

The Equal Rights Amendment is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution that would guarantee equal legal rights regardless of sex. It has not been certified as part of the Constitution.

Alice Paul: Alice Paul was an American suffragist and feminist who drafted the Equal Rights Amendment in 1923. Her proposal supplied the amendment’s original text and launched its campaign.
Article V of the United States Constitution: Article V establishes the procedures for proposing and ratifying amendments to the United States Constitution. It sets the two-thirds proposal and three-fourths ratification thresholds relevant to the amendment.
Equal Protection Clause jurisprudence: Equal Protection Clause jurisprudence is the body of court decisions interpreting the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal-protection guarantee. Courts review sex classifications under this clause without an explicit constitutional sex-equality amendment.
Sex discrimination in United States law: Sex discrimination in United States law concerns unequal treatment based on sex by governments or other regulated actors. The ERA debate focused on whether existing law adequately addressed this broader pattern.
National Woman's Party: The National Woman's Party was an American women's political organization founded in 1916. The party introduced and promoted Paul’s amendment after women won voting rights.
Congressional proposal of constitutional amendments: Congressional proposal is the process by which two-thirds of both houses may send a constitutional amendment to the states. Congress used this route to approve the Equal Rights Amendment in 1972.
Reed v. Reed: Reed v. Reed was a 1971 Supreme Court case holding that arbitrary sex-based preferences in estate administration violated equal protection. It showed that the Fourteenth Amendment could invalidate sex discrimination before ERA ratification.
Title IX: Title IX is a 1972 federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in education programs receiving federal financial assistance. Unlike the proposed amendment, it is a statute limited to federally funded education.
19th Amendment to the United States Constitution: The 19th Amendment prohibits denying or abridging the right to vote on account of sex. Its ratification shifted activists’ attention from voting rights to broader legal equality.
State ratifying conventions: State ratifying conventions are assemblies that can approve constitutional amendments when Congress selects that ratification method. Congress selected state legislatures, not conventions, to ratify this proposal.

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