Launching the Drive for the Equal Rights Amendment

One spring day in 1916, two women set out from New York in a yellow Saxon automobile to drive around the country to mobilize support for a constitutional amendment to give women the right to vote. Recently, as part of a petition I organized, two women set out in an identical yellow Saxon automobile in a Drive for Equality to galvanize Congressional support for a bill to recognize the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) as ratified. The petition was developed by my Hunter College students and can be found at sign4ERA.org.

When the two suffragists began their journey a century ago, they confronted hostile audiences who believed women lacked the capacity to vote. By contrast, the women who are fighting for the ERA today have public opinion firmly on their side–roughly 80% of Americans believe the ERA should be in the Constitution.

And we have fulfilled all the requirements for an amendment– two thirds of each House of Congress voted to approve the ERA and three-quarters of the states (38) have ratified it. Unfortunately, in 1972, opponents inserted an arbitrary deadline into the ERA’s enabling legislation as a way to ensure ratification would fail. But Constitutional scholars like Laurence Tribe of Harvard and Erwin Chemerinsky of Berkeley are sure that if Congress legislates a deadline, Congress can pass legislation to remove it.

When I went to Congress, I had a list of 10 things I wanted to accomplish–and I achieved most of them–providing $1.3 billion for construction of the Second Avenue Subway, increasing funding for affordable housing and so on. The one thing I could not do was to ensure women’s rights are enshrined in the Constitution. When I left Congress, I decided to dedicate my efforts to making it happen.

There was progress during my years in Congress. When I was elected, we were three states shy of the 38 needed for ratification. I worked with a coalition who rallied supporters and got Nevada (2017), Illinois (2018) and Virginia (2020) to ratify the amendment. I held hearings on the ERA and women’s inequality in committees I chaired (Joint Economic Committee and Oversight and Government Reform Committee) and Congressman Nadler held a hearing in the Judiciary Committee. The House voted twice to remove the deadline and recognize the ERA as ratified. In 2023, I persuaded Majority Leader Schumer to allow a hearing in the Senate, followed by a vote on the floor. A majority voted in favor but could not overcome a filibuster.

Once again, legislation is pending in Congress to remove the deadline and acknowledge the ERA as ratified (H.J. Res 80 and S.J. Res 38). The House bill has 219 co-sponsors, including newly elected Christian Menefee and longtime holdout Henry Cuellar, more than enough to pass if the bill were brought to a vote.

I never thought my daughters would have fewer rights than I did at their age, but the Dobbs decision proved women’s rights are provisional. If the Supreme Court can roll back constitutional protections for abortion, it can roll back laws protecting equality in the workplace or education. The ERA would forever change the calculus. This originalist court could no longer justify applying attitudes on women from 1783 when the Constitution was ratified or from 1868 when the Equal Protection Clause was ratified. It would have to apply modern day views of discrimination, giving the ERA potency that the 14th Amendment lacks.

In honor of the Drive for Equality, I encourage you to join us in supporting the ERA at Sign4ERA.org.