Carolyn B. Maloney
Carolyn B. Maloney is an Eleanor Roosevelt Distinguished Leader in Residence at the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College in New York City. She served in Congress from 1993 to 2023, representing the East Side of New York. Today and in Congress, she is a top champion for the Equal Rights Amendment and is widely recognized for her leadership in women’s rights, consumer protection, and government accountability.
In 1993, while teaching a leadership course at Hunter College, the class developed a national ERA petition, Sign4ERA.org, that now has over 160,000 signers. She then founded the non-profit, ERA-NOW.org, that is working to increase the petition to 1 million by the end of 2026. The mission of ERA NOW is to pass an ERA Joint Resolution in Congress, hopefully by March 2027, that will recognize the ERA as ratified and eliminate any arbitrary time limit.
Mayors for ERA and the Driving the Vote for Equality Tour are both projects of ERA NOW.
Maloney is the State President of New York State NOW (National Organization for Women) and is on NOW’s national board of directors.
A trailblazer in Congress, she was the first woman to chair both the House Committee on Oversight and Reform and the Joint Economic Committee. Maloney authored key legislation on the ERA and including the Credit CARD Act, the Debbie Smith Act to address the national rape-kit backlog, and major 9/11 health and compensation measures.
She was born in Greensboro, North Carolina, and is a graduate of Greensboro College. After college, Maloney worked in education and government: as a teacher and administrator with the New York City Board of Education and later in staff roles for the New York State Assembly and State Senate.
From 1982 to 1992, she served in the New York City Council before being elected to Congress and was the first woman to give birth while holding that office.
Maloney lives in New York City and has two daughters, Christina and Virginia, who was just elected to the New York City Council.