What Is the Equal Rights Amendment?

What is the Equal Rights Amendment?

Almost no other constitutional amendment is stuck in this position: ratified by the required number of states, yet not in force. To understand why, start with how an amendment is supposed to become part of the Constitution.

How an Amendment Becomes Law

Article V of the Constitution sets two hurdles, and only two. An amendment must be proposed by two-thirds of both houses of Congress, then ratified by three-fourths of the states, which today means 38 of 50.

The ERA cleared the first hurdle in 1972 and the second in 2020. On the plain text of Article V, that should be the end of the story.

The complication is a deadline. When Congress proposed the ERA, it added a seven-year window for the states to ratify, set to expire in March 1979. That deadline did not appear in the amendment’s own text. It sat in the introductory clause that proposed it.

So the ERA raises a question the Founders never answered. Can Congress attach an expiration date to a constitutional amendment, and if it can, does that date override the three-fourths rule when a state ratifies late? Article V says nothing about deadlines, rescissions, or extensions. Every fight over the ERA since 1979 has turned on that silence.

Is the ERA the 28th Amendment?

Not in any enforceable sense, and that is the heart of the dispute. Thirty-eight states have ratified the ERA, but no court has ordered it published and no Archivist has published it. Until that happens, no judge will enforce it as constitutional text.

Two offices give two answers. The Archivist of the United States, the official who records new amendments, says the ERA “cannot be certified” because the deadline lapsed. President Biden said in January 2025 that ratification was already complete and the ERA “is the 28th Amendment.” Both cannot be operative at once, and the one with the filing pen has not filed.

The gap matters because of two words, ratified and certified, that people treat as if they mean the same thing.

Supporters argue the Archivist’s signature is paperwork, not the source of an amendment’s authority, so the ERA is already the 28th Amendment and the publication is overdue. Opponents argue the 38th ratification came years after the deadline, so there is nothing valid to publish. No court has resolved it, which is why a “28th Amendment” search returns one answer from advocates and the opposite from the federal government.

The 1923 to 2026 Saga

The ERA’s path runs across a century: written in 1923, passed by Congress in 1972, three states short at the 1982 deadline, then revived when Nevada ratified in 2017, Illinois in 2018, and Virginia in 2020. The standoff with the Archivist and the dueling statements from Biden and the National Archives are the latest chapter, not the end.

1. 1923 Alice Paul writes the ERA Introduced in Congress three years after the 19th Amendment gave women the vote.
2. Mar 1972 Congress passes it with a 7-year deadline Cleared two-thirds of both houses and went to the states with a 1979 deadline in the preamble.
3. 1977 35 states ratify, then the wall Indiana is the 35th, three short of 38. STOP ERA has stalled the rest.
4. 1978 Congress extends the deadline to 1982 No new state ratifies in the extension window. Five states vote to rescind.
5. Jun 1982 Deadline passes, three states short The ERA appears dead for a generation.
6. 2017 Nevada revives it as the 36th state Ratifies 45 years to the day after Congress passed the ERA.
7. 2018 Illinois becomes the 37th state The modern push reaches the brink of the three-fourths threshold.
8. Jan 2020 Virginia ratifies as the 38th state Hits the Article V number, decades past the deadline.
9. 2020-23 The Archivist refuses; courts dismiss the suit A DOJ opinion calls the ERA expired; the D.C. Circuit affirms dismissal in 2023. (source)
10. Jan 2025 Biden and the Archivist openly disagree Biden calls it the 28th Amendment; Archivist Shogan says it cannot be certified.

Sources: Brennan Center; Wikipedia ERA timeline; Congressional Research Service; NPR.

From Alice Paul to the Archivist Standoff, 1923 to 2026: 1923 — Alice Paul writes the ERA (Introduced in Congress three years after the 19th Amendment gave women the vote.). Mar 1972 — Congress passes it with a 7-year deadline (Cleared two-thirds of both houses and went to the states with a 1979 deadline in the preamble.). 1977 — 35 states ratify, then the wall (Indiana is the 35th, three short of 38. STOP ERA has stalled the rest.). 1978 — Congress extends the deadline to 1982 (No new state ratifies in the extension window. Five states vote to rescind.). Jun 1982 — Deadline passes, three states short (The ERA appears dead for a generation.). 2017 — Nevada revives it as the 36th state (Ratifies 45 years to the day after Congress passed the ERA.). 2018 — Illinois becomes the 37th state (The modern push reaches the brink of the three-fourths threshold.). Jan 2020 — Virginia ratifies as the 38th state (Hits the Article V number, decades past the deadline.). 2020-23 — The Archivist refuses; courts dismiss the suit (A DOJ opinion calls the ERA expired; the D.C. Circuit affirms dismissal in 2023.). Jan 2025 — Biden and the Archivist openly disagree (Biden calls it the 28th Amendment; Archivist Shogan says it cannot be certified.).

The dates tell a story in two acts. The first act ends in defeat in 1982. The second act, the part most Americans have never heard, is the slow revival that put the ERA over the 38-state line and into a legal limbo no amendment has occupied before.

1923: Alice Paul, who had helped win the 19th Amendment, wrote the ERA and got it introduced in Congress in December. It was reintroduced almost every session for the next 49 years.

March 1972: Congress finally passed it, with Rep. Martha Griffiths leading the House push. It went to the states with a seven-year clock.

1977: Thirty states ratified within a year of passage. By 1977 the count reached 35, with Indiana the 35th on a single tie-breaking vote in the state senate. Then it stalled three states short.

1978: Congress extended the deadline to June 30, 1982. No state ratified during the extension, and five states that had already said yes voted to take it back.

June 1982: The deadline expired with the ERA stuck at 35 of 38. For 35 years, it stayed there.

2017 to 2020: Nevada (2017), Illinois (2018), and Virginia (2020) ratified in quick succession, pushing the total to 38, the exact number Article V requires.

2020 to 2023: The Trump-era Justice Department issued an opinion declaring the ERA expired. The Archivist refused to publish it. Virginia, Illinois, and Nevada sued, and in 2023 the D.C. Circuit upheld the dismissal of their case.

January 2025: President Biden declared the ERA ratified and “the 28th Amendment.” Archivist Colleen Shogan held to her December 2024 statement that it could not be certified. Weeks later, the new administration dismissed her, and the ERA stayed unpublished.

How Phyllis Schlafly Stalled It

The ERA was cruising toward ratification until one organizer turned it around. In September 1972, conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly founded STOP ERA, short for “Stop Taking Our Privileges.”

Her argument flipped the amendment’s promise into a threat. She told women the ERA would strip protections they then held: alimony after divorce, exemption from the military draft, and the legal status of a dependent wife. She warned of women in combat and unisex public bathrooms.

The pitch worked because it spoke to women who feared losing ground, not gaining it. Schlafly mobilized church networks and homemakers into a disciplined lobbying force that showed up in state capitols where the remaining ratifications had to happen.

“Many people who followed the struggle over the ERA believed, rightly in my view, that the Amendment would have been ratified by 1975 or 1976 had it not been for Phyllis Schlafly’s early and effective effort to organize potential opponents.”

Jane Mansbridge, political scientist and author of Why We Lost the ERA

The search query “some women opposed the ERA because” still points back to Schlafly’s frame. The honest answer is that she convinced a bloc of women the amendment would cost them privileges the law gave them as wives and mothers. Supporters countered that those “privileges” were the flip side of being treated as legal dependents rather than equals, but in the 1970s the fear landed harder than the rebuttal.

Which States Ratified the ERA

Whether the ERA counts as ratified depends on which states you count and when. Thirty-eight have voted yes in total, but 3 of them ratified after the deadline and 5 others tried to take their yes back. The map sorts every state into those four groups.

Ratified by the deadline (30 states)

Ratified after the deadline (3 states)

Ratified, then voted to rescind (5 states)

Never ratified (12 states)

Sources: Brennan Center; Wikipedia ERA timeline. Counts: 30 + 3 + 5 = 38 total ratifications; the 5 rescissions are disputed.

State Ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment

State	Status	Detail
Alaska	Ratified by the deadline	Among the 30 states whose ratification still counts toward the 38.
California	Ratified by the deadline	Also wrote its own equal-rights provision into its state constitution in 1879.
Colorado	Ratified by the deadline	Among the 30 states whose ratification still counts toward the 38.
Connecticut	Ratified by the deadline	Among the 30 states whose ratification still counts toward the 38.
Delaware	Ratified by the deadline	Among the 30 states whose ratification still counts toward the 38.
Hawaii	Ratified by the deadline	Among the 30 states whose ratification still counts toward the 38.
Indiana	Ratified by the deadline	The 35th and last state to ratify within the window, on a single tie-breaking vote in 1977.
Iowa	Ratified by the deadline	Among the 30 states whose ratification still counts toward the 38.
Kansas	Ratified by the deadline	Among the 30 states whose ratification still counts toward the 38.
Maine	Ratified by the deadline	Among the 30 states whose ratification still counts toward the 38.
Maryland	Ratified by the deadline	Among the 30 states whose ratification still counts toward the 38.
Massachusetts	Ratified by the deadline	Among the 30 states whose ratification still counts toward the 38.
Michigan	Ratified by the deadline	Among the 30 states whose ratification still counts toward the 38.
Minnesota	Ratified by the deadline	Among the 30 states whose ratification still counts toward the 38.
Montana	Ratified by the deadline	Among the 30 states whose ratification still counts toward the 38.
New Hampshire	Ratified by the deadline	Among the 30 states whose ratification still counts toward the 38.
New Jersey	Ratified by the deadline	Among the 30 states whose ratification still counts toward the 38.
New Mexico	Ratified by the deadline	Among the 30 states whose ratification still counts toward the 38.
New York	Ratified by the deadline	Voters added a sweeping state equal-rights amendment (Prop 1) in 2024.
North Dakota	Ratified by the deadline	Among the 30 states whose ratification still counts toward the 38.
Ohio	Ratified by the deadline	Among the 30 states whose ratification still counts toward the 38.
Oregon	Ratified by the deadline	Among the 30 states whose ratification still counts toward the 38.
Pennsylvania	Ratified by the deadline	Among the 30 states whose ratification still counts toward the 38.
Rhode Island	Ratified by the deadline	Among the 30 states whose ratification still counts toward the 38.
Texas	Ratified by the deadline	Ratified in 1972, one of the early Southern yes votes.
Vermont	Ratified by the deadline	Among the 30 states whose ratification still counts toward the 38.
Washington	Ratified by the deadline	Among the 30 states whose ratification still counts toward the 38.
West Virginia	Ratified by the deadline	Among the 30 states whose ratification still counts toward the 38.
Wisconsin	Ratified by the deadline	Among the 30 states whose ratification still counts toward the 38.
Wyoming	Ratified by the deadline	Put an equal-rights clause in its state constitution back in 1890.
Nevada	Ratified after the deadline	The 36th state, in 2017, 45 years to the day after Congress passed the ERA. Disputed because the 1982 deadline had passed.
Illinois	Ratified after the deadline	The 37th state, in 2018. Disputed because the deadline had passed.
Virginia	Ratified after the deadline	The 38th and decisive state, in 2020. Hit the Article V number, but decades late.
Idaho	Ratified, then rescinded	Voted yes, then voted to withdraw in 1977. Whether a state can rescind is legally unsettled.
Kentucky	Ratified, then rescinded	Voted yes, then voted to withdraw in 1978. Rescission validity is disputed.
Nebraska	Ratified, then rescinded	The first to rescind, in 1973. Article V is silent on whether that counts.
South Dakota	Ratified, then rescinded	Voted to withdraw in 1979. Later sued to block ERA certification.
Tennessee	Ratified, then rescinded	Voted to withdraw in 1974. Rescission validity is disputed.
Alabama	Never ratified	Later sued to block ERA certification.
Arizona	Never ratified	One of the 12 states that never voted yes.
Arkansas	Never ratified	One of the 12 states that never voted yes.
Florida	Never ratified	The ERA repeatedly failed in the state senate.
Georgia	Never ratified	One of the 12 states that never voted yes.
Louisiana	Never ratified	Later sued to block ERA certification.
Mississippi	Never ratified	One of the 12 states that never voted yes.
Missouri	Never ratified	One of the 12 states that never voted yes.
North Carolina	Never ratified	One of the 12 states that never voted yes.
Oklahoma	Never ratified	One of the 12 states that never voted yes.
South Carolina	Never ratified	One of the 12 states that never voted yes.
Utah	Never ratified	Never ratified the federal ERA, though it added an equal-rights clause to its own constitution in 1896.

The map shows why the count is contested. If the 5 rescissions are valid, the ERA is at 33 states and never crossed the line. If they are invalid, and the 3 late ratifications count, the ERA is at 38 and is finished. The legal fight is a fight over which of those colors you are allowed to count.

The Archivist Standoff

An amendment normally becomes official through a quiet step: the Archivist of the United States certifies that the states ratified it and publishes it. With the ERA, that step has become the whole battle.

In 2020, after Virginia ratified, the Trump Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel issued an opinion holding that the 1979 deadline was valid and the ERA had expired. Archivist David Ferriero, citing that opinion, declined to publish.

Three states that had never ratified, Alabama, Louisiana, and South Dakota, sued to block certification. Under a binding agreement that came out of that case, the Archivist may not certify the ERA until at least 45 days after the Justice Department says certification is allowed.

The states that had ratified sued from the other direction. In Virginia v. Ferriero, Virginia, Illinois, and Nevada asked a court to force the Archivist to publish. In 2023, the D.C. Circuit affirmed the dismissal of that suit, ruling the states had not shown the Archivist had a duty to act.

Then came the dueling statements. In December 2024, Archivist Colleen Shogan stated the ERA “cannot be certified as part of the Constitution due to established legal, judicial, and procedural decisions.” In January 2025, President Biden declared it ratified and “the law of the land,” but the White House confirmed he would not order Shogan to publish it. In February 2025, the new administration dismissed Shogan. The ERA remains unpublished.

What the ERA Would Change

If the ERA took effect, it would not invent sex equality from nothing. Courts already strike down many sex-based laws under the 14th Amendment. What the ERA would change is the strength of that protection and where it lives.

Today, when the government treats men and women differently, courts apply intermediate scrutiny. The government must show an “important” interest and a “substantial” connection to it. Race discrimination gets the tougher test, strict scrutiny, which demands a “compelling” interest and a narrowly tailored law.

The most important column is the last one. The 14th Amendment’s sex protections are not written down. They come from a line of cases the Supreme Court built starting in the 1970s, which means the same Court can narrow them. After the Court overturned Roe in 2022, supporters argue, the risk of court-made rights being rolled back is no longer hypothetical.

Skeptics make a fair point worth stating plainly. They argue the 14th Amendment, plus Title VII on jobs and Title IX on schools, already bars most sex discrimination, so the ERA’s added legal force would be modest. Supporters answer that statutes and court doctrines can be repealed or reinterpreted, while constitutional text is far harder to undo, and that intermediate scrutiny is a genuinely weaker shield than strict scrutiny in close cases.

The State ERAs Filling the Gap

While the federal ERA stalls, equal-rights protections have been moving into state constitutions, where they take effect immediately and cannot wait on the Archivist.

About 25 states already have constitutional provisions barring the denial of rights on account of sex, a count that ranges higher depending on how broadly you define an ERA-style clause. California wrote the earliest, in its 1879 constitution. Wyoming followed in 1890 and Utah in 1896, long before the federal fight.

The newest is the most expansive. In November 2024, New York voters approved Proposition 1 with 56.8% of the vote. It added protection against discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, pregnancy, and reproductive autonomy, along with ethnicity, age, and disability. It took effect on January 1, 2025.

State ERAs are not a replacement for the federal amendment. A protection in New York’s constitution does nothing for a woman in a state without one. But they show the demand is current, not a relic of the 1970s, and they give courts in those states a textual hook the federal Constitution still lacks.

Where the Fight Stands in 2026

The ERA is in active dispute, not dormant. House Joint Resolution 80 and its Senate companion, introduced in 2025, would establish the ERA as ratified notwithstanding the 1972 deadline. They have not passed.

The Archivist’s office, now under new leadership after the February 2025 dismissal of Colleen Shogan, has not published the amendment. The binding agreement from the red-state lawsuit still bars certification until the Justice Department clears it, and the current Justice Department has not.

Meanwhile, the state track keeps moving. New York’s 2024 amendment is in force, and equal-rights measures continue to surface on state ballots. The federal ERA’s status in 2026 is the same paradox it has been since 2020: ratified by the required number of states, blocked by a deadline, and waiting on a court or a Congress to break the tie.

How the ERA Could Still Be Finished

There is no single switch to flip. The ERA’s supporters are pursuing three paths at once, each with a different obstacle.

The cleanest is for Congress to remove the deadline. A joint resolution declaring the 1972 deadline invalid would clear the legal cloud over the three late ratifications. The House passed a version in 2021, but it stalled in the Senate, where 60 votes were needed and the filibuster blocked it. In 2025, Rep. Ayanna Pressley reintroduced this approach as House Joint Resolution 80, with a Senate companion.

The second path is the “already ratified” theory. Supporters argue the 38th ratification completed Article V and the Archivist’s refusal is unlawful, so a future president could direct publication or a future court could order it. That path runs through litigation the courts have so far declined to resolve on the merits.

The third path is the long one: pass the ERA through Congress again from scratch, with no deadline, and send it back to the states. That restarts a process that took 49 years the first time.

Where the ERA Is Genuinely Contested

A credible case for the ERA has to name the real objections, not just the strawman ones.

The deadline question is unresolved, not settled

Supporters say the deadline does not belong in a constitutional amendment because it sat in the preamble, not the text the states ratified. Opponents say Congress has always had power to set a reasonable ratification window, and 38 years late is not reasonable. No court has issued a final ruling on the merits, so both sides are arguing an open question, not a closed one.

Rescission may or may not count

Five states voted to take back their ratifications. If those count, the ERA never reached 38. Article V says nothing about rescission, and the Supreme Court has historically treated ratification questions as political, for Congress to decide. That silence is exactly why the count is contested.

The legal payoff is debated, not guaranteed

Reasonable people disagree about how much the ERA would add to existing law. Some constitutional scholars argue it would mostly codify protections courts already recognize. Others argue codifying them is the entire point, because court-made rights can be unmade. The honest position is that the ERA would strengthen and entrench sex-equality protection, while the exact size of the change would be worked out case by case.

It is not primarily about any single issue

Opponents have long tied the ERA to specific flashpoints, from the draft in the 1970s to abortion today. Supporters dispute those links and note the amendment’s text addresses sex discrimination broadly, not any one policy. We cover the separate abortion-access fights in our explainers on the Dobbs decision and the Comstock Act; the ERA debate is about the constitutional standard for sex equality itself.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Equal Rights Amendment in the Constitution right now? No. As of 2026, it has been ratified by 38 states but has not been certified, published, or enforced by any court, so it is not operative constitutional law. Whether it should be is the open dispute.

How is the ERA different from the 19th Amendment? The 19th Amendment, ratified in 1920, guarantees women the right to vote. The ERA is broader: it would bar the government from discriminating on account of sex in any legal right, not just voting.

Does the ERA only protect women? No. The text bars denying rights “on account of sex,” which applies to everyone. In practice most cases have involved laws that disadvantage women, but the protection runs both ways.

Could the ERA be used to challenge abortion bans? Some advocates argue a sex-equality amendment could support such challenges, and some opponents raise the same possibility as a reason to oppose it. Courts have not ruled, and the link is disputed. The ERA’s text is about sex discrimination generally, not abortion specifically.

What is the difference between the ERA and Title IX? Title IX is a 1972 federal statute that bars sex discrimination in education and can be amended or repealed by Congress. The ERA would be constitutional text, which is far harder to undo. See our explainer on Title IX.

What you can do

1. Ask Congress to remove the 1972 deadline. The cleanest legal path is a joint resolution declaring the deadline invalid so the 38 ratifications stand. Tell your representative and senators to support House Joint Resolution 80 and its Senate companion. Use the letter below.
2. Push for a House discharge petition. When leadership refuses to schedule a vote, a discharge petition with 218 signatures can force one. Ask your representative whether they have signed, and if not, why not.
3. Support a state ERA where you live. If your state lacks a constitutional equal-rights provision, state-level amendments take effect immediately and do not wait on the Archivist. Find your legislators at openstates.org.
4. Know your state’s status. Use the map above to see whether your state ratified, rescinded, or never acted. A rescinding or never-ratified state is where local pressure has the most to change.
5. Tell your representatives directly. Name the deadline, name the 38 states, and ask them to act. The letter below uses the same facts on this page.