To many, an Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was crucial in guaranteeing equal justice for women. For fifty years, equal rights advocates, including the National Woman’s Party—who produced this pamphlet—campaigned for the ERA. Representative Martha Griffiths of Michigan played a key role in securing the ERA’s passage in 1972. Ultimately the amendment failed to achieve ratification.
Manuscript Division, Library of Congress
Why: The Equal Rights Amendment NOW! National Woman’s Party, ca. 1939
Equal Rights for Women
After the Nineteenth Amendment secured women’s voting rights in 1920, suffragist Alice Paul drafted the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to guarantee women’s full legal equality. Introduced in every Congress from 1923 to 1972, the ERA was repeatedly stymied in committee. Its opponents feared loss of special protections for women and resisted increasing federal authority. In 1970 Representative Martha Griffiths of Michigan got the ERA discharged from committee. Slightly revised, the amendment passed both houses in 1972 but failed ratification by the required number of states and was never adopted.
To many, an Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was crucial in guaranteeing equal justice for women. For fifty years, equal rights advocates, including the National Woman’s Party—who produced this pamphlet—campaigned for the ERA. Representative Martha Griffiths of Michigan played a key role in securing the ERA’s passage in 1972. Ultimately the amendment failed to achieve ratification.
Manuscript Division, Library of Congress
