The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

After failing to revive the Equal Rights Amendment, activists turn to millennial women to rally support

Rep. Jackie Speier is set to introduce a bill in Congress on Tuesday

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January 29, 2019 at 4:38 p.m. EST

Adapted from a story by The Washington Post’s Patricia Sullivan.

Only one more state is required to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, and supporters had hoped Virginia would be it. But after another failure on that front this week, ERA activists are seeking recruits elsewhere to join the almost-century-old fight to enshrine women’s rights in the Constitution.

The ERA, which was approved by Congress in 1972, needed to be ratified by two-thirds of the states for it to become law. But the measure fell three states short by the original deadline of 1979; a deadline extension to 1982 did not result in any more ratifications.

The Nevada legislature ratified the amendment in 2017, followed by Illinois in 2018. Supporters hoped Virginia would be the 38th and final state needed for ratification in this year’s General Assembly session.

The legislation — which is co-sponsored by a majority of lawmakers in each chamber — twice failed to be voted out of a Republican-controlled House of Delegates committee.

Actress-activist Alyssa Milano and Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Ca.) were among the feminists addressing about 125 mostly millennial-aged women at the Wing Georgetown in Washington, D.C., on Monday night, urging them to get involved in the effort to pass the proposal.

Taking the issue to Congress

Speier on Tuesday is set to introduce a bill in Congress to address the biggest roadblock to the ERA’s adoption, that 1982 deadline, which she proposes to remove from the bill.

Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), who held a “shadow hearing” on the amendment last year, will introduce a separate bill to start the ratification process over again, Speier said.

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“This is nonnegotiable. At this time in this country’s history, we cannot afford to wait another year to pass this,” Speier said Monday night at the Wing, a women-only co-working space and social club.

The audience applauded.

Opponents, lead by socially conservative groups, say passage of the ERA would make it harder to limit abortions and illegal to separate the sexes in bathrooms, college dormitories and school sports — a contention that supporters dispute.

A changing demographic

Milano and other feminists said the campaign to build public support for the amendment should place more emphasis on women of color and other historically overlooked communities who support equal rights.

Jamia Wilson, executive director and publisher of the Feminist Press, said the photos of suffragists from the 1920s that frequently accompany news stories about the ERA seem dated and could be a turnoff to younger supporters.

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Most of the women in the audience raised their hands when asked whether they were born after 1979, when the first ratification deadline passed.

One of the benefits of the ERA is that it “destigmatizes comprehensive health care, including reproductive health care,” Wilson said.

“It’s been 47 years” since congressional passage, Speier said Monday night.