Synthesis Of The Equal Rights Amendment

When the Equal Rights Amendment was first introduced, in 1923, it was just a few years after the 19th amendment had been passed. It continued to be reintroduced every year for the next 48 years without any success. The ERA had no major union backing it until the 1970’s, it lacked the support of the President’s Commission on the Status of Women, and even the National Organization for Women did not endorse the ERA at its founding. In The fact that the Equal Rights Amendment was introduced every year for decades shows how persistent women’s rights activists throughout the 20th century in their pursuit of legal equality

In 1923, when the ERA was first introduced to congress by members of the National Woman’s Party, it was only three years after

The first section states that “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex”. This is the meat of the amendment, that gives women the same rights and protections as men. However, the second section, is equally as important, as without this section the first would be meaningless. The second sections states that Congress has the ability to create legislation to enforce the ERA. The last main point of the ERA simply states that two years after ratification it will “take

The constitution is the entire government and legal system is based on, and women wanted to be formally recognized as equal. The American Revolution could be said to have been founded on the idea that “all men are created equal”. This statement comes with a big asterisk though, as it originally only intended white, property owning men. Throughout time however, amendments were added to the constitution to make this statement more inclusive, yet until the 19th amendment women had never been included. For women who had spent their whole lives fighting for equality, the importance of seeing the federal government recognize them as equal cannot be