About The Equal Rights Amendment

The Equal Rights Amendment is 24 words: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” Those 24 words would do something no existing law currently does — establish sex equality as a fundamental constitutional right, protected by the highest standard of judicial review. The ERA was proposed by Congress in 1972, ratified by the required 38 states by 2020, and has met every requirement Article V of the Constitution sets. It is not yet law because Congress has not formally affirmed it. That is the one remaining step — and it is the step that Driving the Vote for Equality is driving toward.

Under current law, sex discrimination claims are evaluated under “intermediate scrutiny” or “rational basis”— a weaker legal standards that give governments and employers far more room to justify unequal treatment of women. The ERA would change that by establishing strict scrutiny — the highest standard of constitutional protection — as the test for any law or policy that treats men and women differently. The burden of proof shifts: from women proving discrimination, to governments and employers proving justification.

In practice: equal pay claims become harder to dismiss, pregnancy discrimination becomes harder to rationalize, abortion restrictions become harder to defend, and algorithmic bias in hiring becomes legally actionable. The ERA is not symbolic. It is structural.

ERA opponents often argue that existing statutes — the Equal Pay Act, Title VII, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act — already protect women. The evidence says otherwise. Women are still fired within hours of announcing pregnancies. Black women still lose nearly a million dollars in lifetime earnings compared to white men. Women still die in emergency rooms while doctors wait for legal permission to treat them.

But the deeper problem is structural: statutes can be weakened by judicial interpretation, amended or repealed by a simple majority vote, gutted by executive order, or defunded by a budget resolution. The Constitution cannot. The ERA would place sex equality beyond the reach of any single Congress, any single administration, or any single court ruling.

The passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in July 2025 — which slashed nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid and imposed new penalties that fall almost entirely on women — demonstrates exactly what is possible when women’s rights depend only on statutory protection. The ERA is the insurance policy that cannot be canceled.

The ERA has cleared every constitutional bar Article V specifies. Congress proposed it with a two-thirds supermajority in 1972. Thirty-eight states — three-fourths of the nation — ratified it, with Virginia becoming the crucial 38th state on January 27, 2020. By every measure the Constitution sets, the amendment process is complete.

Yet the ERA remains unaffirmed by Congress. Opponents are using an arbitrary deadline inserted into the 1972 preamble of the amendment — not into the text of the amendment itself — to argue the ratification window has closed. The path to resolution runs through Congress.

Article V Ratification Checklist

✓ ⅔ Vote in the House of Representatives — Passed 1972

✓ ⅔ Vote in the Senate — Passed 1972

✓ Ratification by ¾ of States (38) — Virginia, January 27, 2020

⏳ Congressional Joint Resolution — PENDING: S.J. Res. 38 / H.J. Res. 80

When Congress proposed the ERA in 1972, it inserted a seven-year ratification deadline into the preamble of the amendment — not into the text of the amendment itself. That deadline was later extended to 1982. Opponents argue it has expired. ERA proponents — and a growing body of constitutional scholars — counter that this argument has no basis in Article V, which specifies only two requirements: a two-thirds congressional supermajority to propose, and three-fourths of states to ratify. Both have been met.

The decisive precedent: the 27th Amendment. Originally proposed by James Madison in 1789 as part of the Bill of Rights, it was not ratified by the required number of states until 1992 — 203 years later. No deadline was attached. It was published and recognized without controversy. If Madison’s amendment can wait 203 years, the question answers itself: why does women’s equality have an expiration date?

The ERA has met every constitutional requirement. Thirty-eight states have ratified it — enough to make it the law of the land. The only thing standing between women and full constitutional equality is a vote by Congress affirming the ERA as the 28th Amendment. 

No new ratifications are needed. No new legislation needs to be written. Congress simply needs the courage to say what the Constitution already makes clear — that the Equal Rights Amendment is the law of the land. One vote. One historic act of courage. That's all that stands between where we are and where we need to be. 

The Golden Flyer II is on the road across 25 states to make sure Congress hears that message — loud, clear, and from every corner of America. 

The work of ratification is done. What remains is the political will to affirm it — and the public pressure to make Congress act. Every signature on the Sign4ERA.org petition is a vote for equality. Every donation fuels the drive across 25 states. Together, we finish what the suffragists started.