ERA YES Pins: Fashionable (and Feminist) as Ever

The audience was awash in a sea of “suffragette white” during President Trump’s State of the Union Address last week—with a sprinkle of “equal rights green.” 

The ERA Coalition, Feminist Majority and Rethinking Eve distributed iconic ERA YES pins to members of the House Democratic Working Group on Women to amplify the Congressional tribute to early 20th American century suffragists, many of whom would go on to become staunch advocates for the Equal Rights Amendment. (Notable suffrage leader Alice Paul, who led a hunger strike for suffrage while being jailed for her activism, wrote the legislation.) 

“It’s very exciting to see these buttons on the floor of the House,” Eleanor Smeal, President of the Feminist Majority Foundation, told Ms. “The drum is beating, and it’s only getting louder.”

That sentiment was shared by feminists across the Internet when the women of the 116th Congress took to the House Floor with their pins in tow.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BtjHzqgAAeM/

Anyone else notice all the #ERAYES buttons at the #SOTU @VAratifyERA

— Ashley S (@5678AshleyD) February 6, 2019

The ERA YES pins make me so happy. #ERANow #ERA #ERAYes

— Rachel B. Tiven (@rachelbtiven) February 6, 2019

really loving the 100+ congresswomen in white honoring suffragists and women’s rights – the pops of green (#ERAYES buttons) urging passage of the Equal Rights Amendment makes it even better #SOTU

— Celinda Lake (@celindalake) February 6, 2019

Representatives Carolyn Maloney and Jackie Speier were among the lawmakers distributing the pins to their peers—and their legacies as lawmakers will undoubtedly lie in their persistent fight for women’s constitutional equality. Maloney and Speier have long led the fight for the ERA in Congress, and last month introduced legislation to both remove the 1982 ratification deadline imposed on efforts to pass the ERA and restart the ratification process.

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We want to thank @feministmajority for helping us get the #eranow #erayes pins ready for all the House Delegates tonight. We want to thank @repmaloney & @jackiespeier for getting all of the pins to the @housedemocrats #women & #advocates -So proud to see you all in solidarity together in white honoring #suffragettes like Alice Paul, author of the #equalrightsamendment #thankyou

A post shared by ERA Coalition (@eracoalition) on Feb 5, 2019 at 6:46pm PST

The ERA was passed by Congress in 1972, and the 10-year push for ratification that followed ultimately came three states short before the deadline imposed by lawmakers. The fight, however, went on—and in the last two years, Nevada and Illinois voted to ratify the amendment.

The ERA is now just one state short of ratification—and back at the forefront of the fight for women’s equality. Snag your own ERA YES pins from the Feminist Majority Foundation store today to join the fight (and accessorize that all-white pantsuit).