Additionally, the #TimesUp movement highlighted gender inequality in the workplace. The #MeToo movement incited public awareness to sex-based violence, particularly targeted towards women. Representative Steven Andersson, a Republican from Illinois, spoke publicly about his support for the ERA saying “this is our generation’s chance to correct a long standing wrong.” With campaigns such as the #MeToo movement and the #TimesUp movement, women’s rights and gender equality is at the forefront of societal concern like never before. More than 30 years after the deadline expired, Nevada and Illinois cast its vote to ratify the ERA in 20, respectively. However, interest in the ERA was resurrected by recent revived public attentiveness to women’s rights.

Five states even voted to rescind their ratifications. The deadline was subsequently extended by three years, but the initial spur by the states to ratify slowed down significantly, due mostly to strong opposition from Conservative activists such as Phyllis Schlafly, who spearheaded the STOP ERA campaign. Congress, however, set a seven-year deadline for at least 38 states to ratify the Amendment, the requisite number of states needed to ratify before the Amendment is presented to the Archivist of the United States for certification into the U.S. Thirty states ratified the ERA within the following year. The ERA passed both chambers of Congress in March, 1972 with more than two-thirds of the majorities, which is required before the amendment moves to the states to be ratified. However, the ERA didn’t gain momentum until 1970, when a new wave of women lawmakers in Congress pushed the ERA as a top legislative priority.

The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.” “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. Constitution, first drafted in 1923 by leaders in the women’s suffrage movement, Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman, that states: The ERA is a proposed amendment to the U.S. By a historic vote, Virginia became the 38 th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) on January 15, 2020.

Equal protection clause amendment