Vera Glaser

These excerpts of the U.S. Congressional Record are from the date the Equal Rights Amendment was approved by the U.S. Senate.  In addition to documenting the text of the amendment, the Record also reviews the legislative history of previous proposed constitutional amendments providing for equal rights for men and women. 

This article, published in a monthly Catholic Jesuit magazine, concludes that the ERA poses no threat to the American family. The author encourages readers to support the ERA.

This article, published in a feminist magazine, outlines the influence members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had in lobbying the Nevada legislature to defeat the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.

This pamphlet, published by a women's organization that supports the Equal Rights Amendment, answers common questions about the ERA, noting that "equal rights for everyone threatens no one."

This report summarizes the current nationwide outlook for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment as of year-end 1978. It also reviews the history of the long struggle for ERA passage and forecasts the future of the ratification drive.

This press release announces a July 9, 1978 march on the U.S. Capitol to demonstrate support for the Equal Rights Amendment and the ERA extension.

The front page article and accompanying photographs show support for the Equal Rights Amendment with more than 40,000 marchers who gathered in Washington D.C. on July 9, 1978. Organizers called it "the largest parade for feminism in history".

These talking points were distributed by the National Organization for Women (NOW), which encouraged its members to lobby state and national legislators to vote in favor of the Equal Rights Amendment and for an extension of the deadline for ratification.

This collection of newspaper editorials was compiled and distributed the the "Stop ERA Extension" campaign, led by Phyllis Schlafly. The editorials all support Schlafly's claim that extending the deadline for approval of the Equal Rights Amendment is unfair.

The Illinois House's refusal to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment dealt a significant blow to the possibility of the ERA becoming the 27th amendment to the Constitution. Earlier in 1980, the ERA had been voted down in Virginia and Georgia.

Dozens of cities hosted walkathons in support of the Equal Rights Amendment, with the nationwide goal of raising one million dollars to finance the amendment lobbying effort.

After nine failed attempts to get the Equal Rights Amendment ratified by the Virginia State Legislature, backers of the ERA, including the National Organization for Women, make one final attempt to lobby to elect state legislators who support ratification.

Even with the extended deadline for Equal Rights Amendment ratification, by the end of December 1981,  an additional three state legislatures had still not voted for ratification of the ERA. Legal challenges mounted to both the validity of the extended deadline and the rights of states to recind their approval.

Thirteen fact sheets, distributed by the National Organization for Women, outline the status of ERA ratification efforts, a comprehensive outline of the history of the ERA, the statistics on public support for the ERA and more.

This article reflects on the defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment ratification votes across states including Virginia, Florida and Illinois.

With the defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment, this article looks at both Phyllis Schlafly's anti-ERA campaign and the lessons learned by the National Organization for Women as they sought ratification.

After the June 30, 1982 deadline for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment passed without the necessary 3 additional state ratifications, Congress had to start over. The ERA was reintroduced in the U.S. Congress on July 14, 1982. 51 Senators and 204 Representatives signed on as cosponsors, but the reintroduction failed to gain traction.

This news release announces the plan to reintroduce the Equal Rights Amendment in the U.S. Congress in January of 1983.

In 1980, for the first time in 40 years, the Equal Rights Amendment was eliminated from the Republican Party platform. Republican President Ronald Reagan publicly refused to support the ERA. This position paper, published by the National Organization for Women, outlines the many ways Reagan's actions and the lack of an ERA disadvantages women.

In this article Schlafly, who was the leader of the efforts to oppose ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, makes numerous suggestions to "clean up" the ERA before further attempts at ratification are made. Among her points are that the ERA shall not grant any right to "abortion or abortion funding, to give special rights to homosexuals, to require drafting of women  or assignment of women to combat."

This briefing paper includes 8 fact sheets on the Equal Rights Amendment, which the Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues hopes to see passed in the the 98th U.S. Congress.

This article discusses the plan of feminist leaders to make the Equal Rights Amendment a major issue in the 1984 elections.

This new release announces that, once again, there will be an attempt to see the Equal Rights Amendment passed, this time in the 100th U.S. Congress. The Chairs of both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees support the ERA.

This article discusses yet another push by the National Organization for Women (NOW) to have the Equal Rights Amendment passed in the U.S. Congress. NOW's latest strategy is to support women running for office at all levels of government.