Equal Rights Amendment Archives

‘You’re Either Going to Be on the Right Side of History, or on the Sidelines Watching Us Make History’: ERA Champion Pat Spearman Is Ready for the Feminist Future

PUBLISHED 9/12/2025 by Carmen Rios

Pat Spearman had a habit of making history during her three terms in the Nevada Senate.

Spearman became the first openly lesbian member of the Nevada Legislature when she was first elected in 2012. In her second term, she was the chief sponsor of legislation ratifying the ERA in the Silver State in 2017—35 years after the deadline imposed by Congress on ERA ratification had expired—reigniting the movement for constitutional equality and leading a three-state wave that pushed the ERA over the finish line for addition to the U.S. Constitution. And in her third term, Spearman also drove the successful effort to add the most inclusive and expansive ERA on record to Nevada’s own state constitution in 2022, “guaranteeing rights regardless of race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, ancestry or national origin.”

“I want us to hurry up and get this done,” she said in the latest episode of Looking Back, Moving Forward, “because I’m ready to pick another fight.”

Listen to the latest episode of Looking Back, Moving Forward, “The Feminist Fight For The Equal Rights Amendment Is Far From Over—and More Urgent Than Ever (with Pat Spearman, Ellie Smeal, Carol Moseley Braun, Kathy Spillar, and Ting Ting Cheng)” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

‘These Aren’t Decorative Constitutional Provisions—They’re Powerful Tools Waiting to Be Used’: How the ERA Project Is Advancing the Feminist Agenda, State by State

PUBLISHED 9/10/2025 by Carmen Rios

In the final episode of the Ms. Studios podcast Looking Back, Moving Forward, ERA Project director Ting Ting Cheng breaks down the power of state Equal Rights Amendments—and how activists and lawmakers can leverage them to build a stronger foundation for federal constitutional equality for everyone.

‘Who Could Be Opposed to This?’: Why the ERA Is Kathy Spillar’s ‘North Star’ in the Fight for Gender Equality

PUBLISHED 9/8/2025 by Carmen Rios

Kathy Spillar, executive editor of Ms. magazine, became involved in feminist organizing when the supposed ratification deadline for the Equal Rights Amendment expired in 1982. In the final episode of the Ms. podcast Looking Back, Moving Forward, she explains why, 40 years later, she’s still calling for constitutional equality.

‘It Was The Most Important Thing I Could Do’: Ellie Smeal Reflects on a Lifetime of ERA Activism—And What Comes Next

PUBLISHED 9/5/2025 by Carmen Rios

Ellie Smeal helped architect the movement to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. In the final episode of Looking Back, Moving Forward, she shares stories from the frontlines and offers lessons—and optimism—for the fight ahead.

‘I’m Not Going to Tolerate Being Treated as a Second-Class Citizen’: Carol Moseley Braun Isn’t Giving Up on the Fight for Constitutional Equality

PUBLISHED 9/3/2025 by Carmen Rios

“The expectation of equality is the most important cultural thing that we can achieve, and we have to keep holding up that light.”

Carol Moseley Braun became the first Black woman elected to the Senate after her involvement in the movement to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. In the fifth and final episode of Looking Back, Moving Forward, more than 40 years later, she asked a simple question: “Why haven’t we gotten this right yet?”

The Promise of the Equal Rights Amendment Is More Urgent Than Ever

PUBLISHED 8/29/2025 by Carmen Rios

In the fifth episode of Looking Back, Moving Forward, advocates and experts reflect on more than 50 years of activism to ratify the ERA—and the power that would come from women’s constitutional equality to redefine our democracy, protect our fundamental rights and change the stories of women’s lives.

Why Big Business Is Trying to Defeat the ERA: The Economic Implications of Equality (May 1976)

PUBLISHED 8/27/2025 by Elinor Langer

On Nov. 7, 1975—more than half a year ago as you read this—the voters of New York and New Jersey defeated amendments to their state constitutions which said that men and women should be treated equally before the law. It was one of those old-fashioned political events that the rise of the pollster is supposed to have leeched from our body politic—namely, a surprise. It set off a period both of private introspection on the part of individual women who had previously taken ratification of the federal Equal Rights Amendment for granted, and public reconsideration on the part of the organizations and politicians to whom stewardship of the ratification movement had fallen.

Women’s Equality Day: Celebrate the Victories. Confront the Backlash.

PUBLISHED 8/22/2025 by Ms. Editors

Tuesday, Aug. 26, marks 104 years since the 19th Amendment was certified, recognizing women’s constitutional right to vote. But anniversaries like Women’s Equality Day are not just about looking back. They remind us of unfinished business.

The proposed SAVE Act threatens to make voting harder for students, married women, low-income voters and communities of color. Dark money is flooding state races aimed at rolling back abortion access, LGBTQ+ protections and civil rights. And without congressional recognition of the ERA, gender equality remains absent from the Constitution.

But wins are possible.

Victoria Nourse Helped Write the Violence Against Women Act. She Knows Policy Change Matters in the Struggle to End Gender-Based Violence.

PUBLISHED 8/21/2025 by Carmen Rios

On the latest episode of Looking Back, Moving Forward, the Georgetown Law professor and vice chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights reflected on how VAWA has shifted culture when it comes to gender-based violence—and what tools activists can use now to continue the work.

“No one would’ve thought someone like me would’ve been able to do the kinds of things I’ve done. My older sisters didn’t have the opportunities I have … but the world opened up. Things can change quite quickly in politics.”

“There’s just many, many reasons why ERA is something not to let go of. … They never really say women are unequal. They believe women are equal, but they say, ‘Oh, but transgender,’ ‘Oh, but something else,’ and so, they divide us. It’s really important for all of us to be united because Congress can change the deadline [in the preamble of the ERA].”

Listen to the latest episode of Looking Back, Moving Forward, “How Feminists are Breaking the Cycle of Gender-Based Violence and Harassment (with Ellen Sweet, Jane Caputi, Vanessa Tyson, Victoria Nourse, and Debra Katz)” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

‘Our Federal Constitution Doesn’t Protect Us’: How the Women’s Law Project Redefined the Fight for Abortion Rights in Pennsylvania

PUBLISHED 7/30/2025 by Carmen Rios

“We got here because we have the gender ruling class desperately holding onto their privilege—using any means necessary,” said WLP executive director Susan Frietsche on the latest episode of Looking Back, Moving Forward.

Listen to the second episode —”Inside the Feminist Fight to Reclaim Our Reproductive Freedom (with Renee Bracey Sherman, Michele Goodwin, Angie Jean-Marie and Amy Merrill, Susan Frietsche, and Gov. Maura Healey)”—on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

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