The proposed Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the U.S. Constitution finally passed the House of Representatives and Senate in the early 1970s, five decades after it was first proposed by Alice Paul. In March 1972, Congress sent the ERA to the states for ratification, with a March 1979 deadline. Eventually, the ERA deadline of seven years was extended, but the ERA still fell three states short of ratification.
Congressional Deadlines on Amendment Ratification
Three-fourths of the states, or 38 out of 50, needed to ratify the ERA by March 1979. The seven-year ERA deadline was not part of the actual text of the amendment; it was part of the accompanying proposing clause.
Not all constitutional amendments have included time limits. The first time Congress gave the states a seven-year deadline to ratify an amendment was the 18th Amendment, which enacted Prohibition and was ratified in 1919. Congress set no deadline for the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote when it was ratified in 1920.
The Pace of Ratification
During the first year after its passage, 22 of the required 38 states ratified the ERA. Then, eight more states ratified in 1973, three states in 1974 and one in 1975. The pace slowed down as anti-feminists and other political groups fought against ratification of the ERA. In 1977, Indiana became the 35th and final state, so far, to ratify.
The Push for Deadline Extension
In 1978, with the seven-year deadline fast approaching, the National Organization for Women (NOW) declared a state of emergency on the ERA. NOW pledged all its resources to the state-by-state ratification struggle and the effort to extend the ERA deadline.
Dozens of organizations were allied in the fight to pass the amendment, and a majority of the public supported the ERA in public opinion polls. NOW led a march of thousands of supporters in Washington in the summer of 1978, calling for an indefinite extension of the deadline. Congress responded to the pressure, but extended the deadline for only three years, to June 30, 1982.
Legal Issues and Disagreements
Political debate and rhetoric swirled around the ERA, and five states rescinded their ratifications during the 1970s. There was some argument that these rescissions were invalid on legal and/or procedural grounds. In 1981, a District Court decided, in Idaho v. Freeman, that the rescissions were valid but the ERA deadline extension was not valid, because it had been approved by only a majority in Congress instead of a two-thirds super majority. NOW appealed that decision, and the Supreme Court granted a stay of the ruling.
The fight for ratification by the new 1982 deadline continued. However, no more states ratified. On June 30, 1982, the total remained at 35. In October 1982, the Supreme Court ruled that the Idaho v. Freeman case was moot because the required total of 38 states had not been met, with or without the rescissions and deadline extension.
A New Deadline?
Thus, there is still an argument as to whether the five state rescissions are valid and whether the 35 state ratifications are valid. Some legal scholars and feminist activists promote the “three states strategy,” which says that the 35 ratifications are valid and if Congress again approves the amendment, only three more states need to ratify it to make it part of the Constitution. This argument is based in part on the passage of the 27th Amendment, regarding Congressional salaries. It was proposed in 1789 and finally ratified in 1992.
The ERA has repeatedly been introduced in each session of Congress since the protracted 1970s-1980s struggle. Each time, it has been proposed with no deadline for ratification.