The year was 1970. The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) had been introduced in every session of the U.S. Congress since Alice Paul authored the amendment in 1923. For most of those years, the bill languished in committee, but the women’s liberation movement had a different destiny in mind for the ERA in the 1970s.
Stand Up to the Senate
On February 17, 1970, members of the National Organization for Women (NOW) made their voices heard by standing up for the ERA in the Senate – literally standing up, that is.
The protesters sat in the gallery listening to Senate hearings on the subject of an amendment to change the voting age to 18. At a pre-arranged signal from Wilma Scott Heide, twenty women stood up, unfurled posters they had brought in their bags and demanded that Congress hold hearings on the ERA.
Wilma Scott Heide and Jean Witter, the protest leaders, were activists from the Pittsburgh chapter of NOW. Wilma Scott Heide became the national NOW president in 1971.
Effects of the Protest
The disruption of the Senate hearing focused attention on the ERA and the fact that legislators had long ignored the proposed amendment. Senate subcommittee hearings on the ERA began in May 1970.
The next year, 1971, the ERA passed the House of Representatives and, in March, 1972, it passed the Senate. The amendment was sent to the states for ratification with a seven year deadline that was later extended to 1982. Ultimately, the ERA fell three states short of ratification. The U.S. Constitution still lacks an explicit guarantee of equality for women.