Are Women People? The Equal Rights Amendment Then and Now

By

Kimberly A. Hamlin

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A 1972 Equal Rights Amendment rally in Los Angeles, California.

ERA for Everyone

A 1972 Equal Rights Amendment rally in Los Angeles, California.

President Jimmy Carter signing an extension of the Equal Rights Amendment Ratification in 1978.

Carter Signing ERA

President Jimmy Carter signing an extension of the Equal Rights Amendment Ratification in 1978.

A flag made for First Lady Betty Ford’s limousine.

Don’t Tread On Me

A flag made for First Lady Betty Ford’s limousine.

A rally in Washington, D.C. celebrating Representative Carolyn Maloney’s reintroducing of the Equal Rights Amendment in 2009.

ERA YES

A rally in Washington, D.C. celebrating Representative Carolyn Maloney’s reintroducing of the Equal Rights Amendment in 2009.

New England members of the National Woman’s Party lobbying in Washington, D.C.

NWP Lobbying

New England members of the National Woman’s Party lobbying in Washington, D.C. for the Equal Rights Amendment in 1924.

An apron given to First Lady Betty Ford in support of the Equal Rights Amendment.

ERA Apron

An apron given to First Lady Betty Ford in support of the Equal Rights Amendment.

A button supporting the Equal Rights Amendment.

ERA Button

A button supporting the Equal Rights Amendment and emphasizing that only three more states need to ratify it.

A Detroit march in 1980 in support of the Equal Rights Amendment.

Detroit March

A Detroit march in 1980 in support of the Equal Rights Amendment.

A map depicting the states that have adopted state resolutions akin to the Equal Rights Amendment.

State-level Provisions

A map depicting the states that have adopted state resolutions akin to the Equal Rights Amendment.

Phyllis Schlafly speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2011.

Phyllis Schlafly

Phyllis Schlafly speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2011.

A button with the text of the Equal Rights Amendment.

ERA Text

A button with the text of the Equal Rights Amendment.

A protestor describing women’s place as being in government.

Women’s Place

A protestor describing women’s place as being in government.

Pennsylvania supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment in 1978.

ERA Supporters

Pennsylvania supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment in 1978.

A protestor’s sign at the Women’s March in Washington, D.C. in 2017.

Feminism Definition

A protestor’s sign at the Women’s March in Washington, D.C. in 2017.

A t-shirt worn by a supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1980s.

ERA Countdown

A t-shirt worn by a supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1980s now being worn by the supporter’s daughter.

A protester in San Francisco during the Women’s March in 2017.

ERA NOW

A protester in San Francisco during the Women’s March in 2017 calling for the immediate ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.

Alice Paul, the author of the original Equal Rights Amendment.

Alice Paul

Alice Paul, the author of the original Equal Rights Amendment, in 1920.

Fifty members of the National Woman’s Party meeting with President Warren G. Harding.

National Woman’s Party with President Harding

Fifty members of the National Woman’s Party meeting with President Warren G. Harding at the White House in 1921 to urge him to support the Equal Rights Amendment.

Florence Kelley, the head of the National Consumers League.

Florence Kelley

Florence Kelley, the head of the National Consumers League, in 1925.

Conditions in commercial laundries at the turn of the century were difficult and dangerous.

Turn-of-the-century Laundry

Conditions in commercial laundries at the turn of the century were difficult and dangerous.

National Woman’s Party delegates of New York lobbying Governor Al Smith.

National Woman’s Party and Governor Al Smith

National Woman’s Party delegates of New York lobbying Governor Al Smith for his support of the Equal Rights Amendment in 1924.

Envoys of the National Woman’s Party in Rapid City, South Dakota.

National Woman’s Party Envoys

Envoys of the National Woman’s Party in Rapid City, South Dakota traveling to a meeting with President Calvin Coolidge to ask for his support of the Equal Rights Amendment in 1927.

Dorothy Straus, a New York attorney, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1938.

Dorothy Straus

Dorothy Straus, a New York attorney, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1938 against the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.

Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt with former Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins in 1961 at the fiftieth anniversary of the Triangle Fire.

Eleanor Roosevelt and Frances Perkins

Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt with former Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins in 1961 at the fiftieth anniversary of the Triangle Fire—a fire in a garment factory that took the lives of over one hundred women and launched a movement for workplace safety regulations.

Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt with members of The Women’s Trade Union League.

Eleanor Roosevelt and the Women’s Trade Union League

Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt with members of The Women’s Trade Union League in New York in 1958.

President John F. Kennedy meeting with Eleanor Roosevelt and other prominent women.

President’s Commission on the Status of Women

President John F. Kennedy meeting with Eleanor Roosevelt and other prominent women as part of the President’s Commission on the Status of Women in 1962.

President John F. Kennedy with members of the American Association of University Women.

President Kennedy and the American Association of University Women

President John F. Kennedy with members of the American Association of University Women as he signs the Equal Pay Act in 1963.

Democratic Congressman Howard K. Smith of Virginia.

Congressman Howard K. Smith

Democratic Congressman Howard K. Smith of Virginia.

President Lyndon Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964

President Lyndon Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

President Lyndon Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964

President Lyndon Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Congresswoman Martha Griffiths.

Congresswoman Martha Griffiths

Congresswoman Martha Griffiths, a Democrat from Michigan, resurrected the Equal Rights Amendment.

A poster mocking evangelist Pat Robertson's quatation.

Pat Robertson Quotation

A poster mocking evangelist Pat Robertson's quatation, which he wrote in 1992 in opposition to Iowa adding an Equal Rights Amendment to its state constitution.

Mary Tyler Moore portraying Mary Richards.

Mary Tyler Moore

Mary Tyler Moore portraying Mary Richards, a professional woman in 1977.

First Lady Betty Ford crossing her fingers and wearing a button in support of ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment.

First Lady Betty Ford

First Lady Betty Ford crossing her fingers and wearing a button in support of ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment in 1975.

Gloria Steinem at a news conference for the Women’s Action Alliance in 1972.

Gloria Steinem

Gloria Steinem at a news conference for the Women’s Action Alliance in 1972.

A sign from the 2017 Women’s March quoting Eleanor Smeal.

Eleanor Smeal Quotation

A sign from the 2017 Women’s March quoting Eleanor Smeal, a former president of the National Organization for Women.

Phyllis Schlafly with fellow opponents of the Equal Rights Amendment.

Phyllis Schlafly

Phyllis Schlafly with fellow opponents of the Equal Rights Amendment in front of the White House in 1977.

Women opposed to the Equal Rights Amendment in Florida’s Senate chamber in 1979.

STOP ERA

Women opposed to the Equal Rights Amendment in Florida’s Senate chamber in 1979.

Anti-Equal Rights Amendment protesters in front of the White House in 1977.

Anti-ERA Protestors

Anti-Equal Rights Amendment protesters in front of the White House in 1977.

A map depicting participation in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women

A map depicting participation in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

With the bill’s namesake at his side, President Barack Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009.

Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

With the bill’s namesake at his side, President Barack Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009.

A protester’s sign mocks the notion of prescribed gender roles at a demonstration in Paris, France.

Sushi Rolls Not Gender Roles

A protester’s sign mocks the notion of prescribed gender roles at a demonstration in Paris, France in solidarity with the 2017 Women’s March in the U.S.

A 1978 advertisement for Enjoli perfume in Vogue.

Enjoli Perfume

A 1978 advertisement for Enjoli perfume in Vogue.

A graph depicting the wage gap between men and women from 1980 to 2009 as a ratio of female to male earnings.

Female-to-Male Earnings Ratio

A graph depicting the wage gap between men and women from 1980 to 2009 as a ratio of female to male earnings.

Equal Rights Amendment activists in Nevada.

ERA YES

Equal Rights Amendment activists in Nevada ahead of that state’s 2017 ratification.

A woman celebrating Nevada’s passage of the Equal Rights Amendment and pledging that Virginia would do so next.

#MakeVANext

A woman celebrating Nevada’s passage of the Equal Rights Amendment and pledging that Virginia would do so next.

Children at a Virginia rally supporting the Equal Rights Amendment in 2017.

Equal Means Equal

Children at a Virginia rally supporting the Equal Rights Amendment in 2017.

A map of the states that had ratified the ERA.

ERA Ratification Status

A map of the states that had ratified the Equal Rights Amendment as of 2007.

Demonstrators on the National Mall for the Women’s March in January 2017.

Women’s March

Demonstrators on the National Mall for the Women’s March in January 2017.

Alice Paul.

Alice Paul and Suffrage

Alice Paul while fighting for women's suffrage in 1915.

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