Gender equality is the backbone of a free and fair democracy … which is why the fight to enshrine equality into the U.S. Constitution is foundational to Ms. and has been so since the magazine’s inception. Today we are closer than ever to securing the Equal Rights Amendment in the Constitution—just as the real-time need for its protections couldn’t be more alarmingly urgent.

For Women’s History Month 2024, we proudly dedicate this installment of Women & Democracy to the bold future of the ERA. This curated series answers key questions: What will it take to fully and finally recognize the ERA as the 28th Amendment? How strong is public support for the ERA? (Spoiler alert: VERY.) What are modern state-level ERAs already accomplishing? And how will the ERA help turn the tide against rollbacks to abortion and reproductive freedom in our post-Dobbs society?

Among the site’s content is a deep dive and dedicated podcast about a major judicial ruling in Pennsylvania that shows the power of leveraging the ERA to support abortion rights. And the hits keep coming: In recent weeks, an appeals court in Minnesota deemed denial of emergency contraception a form of sex discrimination, just as a district court required Nevada Medicaid to pay for abortions under the state Equal Rights Amendment.

We are grateful to partner with the ERA Project at Columbia Law, the Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center at NYU Law, and our publisher, Feminist Majority Foundation, as well as a variety of guest experts—and, as ever, to work every day with activists and organizers moving and shaking to make change, especially colleagues at the ERA Coalition. If you are inspired by this Women & Democracy installment, we invite you to join the fight for the ERA; take action here at Sign4ERA.org.