Hawaii was the first state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1972. Hawaii acted almost immediately to become the first state to ratify the ERA, within the first hour after the U.S. Senate passed the amendment.
On March 22, 1972, the Senate vote of 84 to 8 sent the ERA to the states for ratification. The vote took place in the mid-to-late afternoon in Washington D.C., when it was still midday in Hawaii. The Hawaii state Senate and House of Representatives voted their approval shortly after noon Hawaii Standard Time, making Hawaii the first state to ratify the ERA.
Hawaii also approved an equal rights amendment to its state constitution that same year. The "equality of rights" amendment has similar wording to the proposed federal ERA of the 1970s.
On that first day of ERA ratification in March 1972, many senators, journalists, activists and other public figures predicted that the amendment would soon be ratified by the necessary three-fourths of the states, a total of 38 out of 50 states. However, after 22 ratifications in 1972, fewer states ratified during each succeeding year, and the ERA was three states short when the final deadline came.