Thirty-five states ratified the proposed Equal Rights Amendment during the 1970s. The last state to ratify the ERA was Indiana.
Indiana's ERA approval came five years after the proposed amendment was sent to the states for ratification in 1972. By that time, 34 other states had ratified. Indiana became the 35th state to ratify the amendment on January 18, 1977.
Unfortunately, the ERA eventually fell three states short of the necessary 38 states to become part of the Constitution. Three-fourths of the state legislatures in the U.S. needed to ratify it, a total of 38 out of 50 states, and so far only 35 have done so.
Although feminist activists struggled to pass the ERA until the final deadline in 1982, Indiana was the last state to ratify the ERA, in 1977.