For the women of Virginia
and the women of America, the
resolution has finally passed.
[cheers]
[NARRATOR:] Last January,
Virginia became the
latest state to ratify a
constitutional amendment
that the country has
been fighting about
for nearly 100 years:
the Equal Rights Amendment.
But the move quickly
drew challenges....
[REPORTER:] Five Republican
Attorneys General are
seeking to block an effort
to see the Equal Rights
Amendment adopted into
the US constitution.
[NARRATOR:] The heart of
the ERA is only 24 words.
It would bar discrimination
on the basis of sex.
And the story of its
long, circuitous path
illustrates the changing debate
in America about women's rights.
[NEWSREEL:] The most dramatic
step to date in woman's
campaign for equal rights.
[NARRATOR:] In 1920, women had
just secured the right to vote.
[NEWSREEL:] Women in Illinois
are quick to register and vote
while energetic suffrage
adherents realize their
long campaign is over.
[NARRATOR:] The struggle for
suffrage had taken decades.
And the final few years had
pushed leaders like Alice Paul,
a founder of the
National Woman's Party,
to take radical
steps for the cause.
[NEWSREEL:] Ms. Paul, a
dramatic campaigner, had gone
on a hunger strike earlier
in an effort to force
congressional action.
[NARRATOR:] But for
Paul, winning the vote
was just the beginning.
Many states had laws that
made it difficult for
married women to work.
If married women worked,
they didn't necessarily
own their own earnings.
And they didn't have the same
rights as husbands and fathers
over their own children.
So they thought that if they
had a constitutional amendment
that made discrimination
against women illegal
and unconstitutional,
that would be a huge step
towards women actually
being equal in society.
[NARRATOR:] Paul and her
collaborators proposed
what became known as the
Equal Rights Amendment,
and it was first introduced
into Congress in 1923.
But the seemingly
straightforward idea
raised concerns from
many of the women
who had worked
together for suffrage.
[SUK:] They were worried
that it would wipe out laws
that they had worked
to get on the books
to actually protect
women in the workplace.
[NEWSREEL:] America at
the turn of the century.
On the assembly
line, as in the home,
a woman's work is never done.
[NARRATOR:] Those special
protections for women,
like shorter work days,
were hard won by progressive
reformers like Florence Kelley,
and based on the
idea that women,
particularly vulnerable
to exploitation,
needed to be
treated differently.
The reformers and labor
unions feared these
protections would be undercut
by an amendment guaranteeing
equality of the sexes.
[SUK:] That fear was
not unreasonable,
because the Supreme Court
did strike down a law
that guaranteed minimum
wages for women.
They pointed to the fact
that women now have the
constitutional right to vote
as evidence that sex
inequality was on its way out.
[NARRATOR:] But for
people like Alice Paul,
special labor protections
for one gender were at odds
with the idea of equality.
[NARRATOR:] It was a
debate that would follow
the ERA through time
as women entered the workforce
in increasing numbers....
[NEWSREEL:] Employers find
that women can do many jobs as
well as men, some jobs better.
[NARRATOR:] And Alice Paul
and the National Woman's Party
continued to press their case
for the ERA over the
next four decades.
[NEWSREEL:] Surrounded by
memories of suffragettes,
these ladies have pursued
the goal of a fair and
equal break rate
for American women.
[NARRATOR:] By the early 1970s,
labor opposition to the ERA was
receding, in part because labor
protections were expanding
for both women and men.
And with growing bipartisan
support in congress,
and momentum from
The burgeoning
women's movement...
Equal rights to have a job,
to have respect, to not be
viewed as a piece of Meat...
[NARRATOR:] The calls
for the ERA were becoming
too powerful to ignore.
[ALICE PAUL:] Gradually instead
of a little tiny cluster,
we now have 10 million women
backing this particular
measure before Congress.
[BELLA ABZUG:] We will settle
for nothing less in the ultimate
than equal representation
in all levels of
political power.
[NARRATOR:] Congresswoman
Martha Griffiths had
repeatedly introduced the ERA
into the House over the years
and finally succeeded
in forcing the Amendment
onto the floor in 1970,
where the broad backing for
the measure soon became clear.
[SUK:] Once it did
get a full debate,
well over 90 percent
of the House actually
voted for the ERA.
[NEWSREEL:] The House
today by the overwhelming
vote of 354 to 23,
passed a proposed
constitutional amendment
to guarantee equal
rights for women.
[NARRATOR:] By 1972,
both the House and Senate
had passed the ERA.
[NEWSREEL:] The agreement now
goes to the states and must
be ratified by 38 of them.
[NARRATOR:] And within one
year, 30 states, out of the
38 needed, ratified it...
but then, an opposition
movement emerged,
led by conservative
Phyllis Schlafly.
The wife has the legal right to
be a full-time wife and mother
supported by her husband.
[NARRATOR:] The campaign
found a receptive audience
among women concerned about
changing gender roles.
The major objection to
the equal rights amendment
is that it would
take away from women
rights and privileges
which they now have.
[NARRATOR:] Schlafly's push
dovetailed with the rise of
the powerful religious Right,
and ERA proponents were stunned.
The women here now fear they
are facing an organized enemy,
the Moral Majority and
conservative groups
who have found a newly powerful
voice since the 1980 election.
[NARRATOR:] In the
end, the amendment
fell three states short
when the ratification
period expired in 1982.
The chimes strike at midnight
for ratification of the ERA.
At that moment the
ERA becomes DOA.
[NARRATOR:] But now over
three decades later,
as the number of women in
Congress and State Houses
reaches a record high,
a new generation is
reviving the ERA.
There is only one
way to spell equality
and that is simply ERA.
[NARRATOR:] Women in
the Nevada, Illinois and
Virginia legislatures
are leading the fight.
[REPORTER:] In the wake
of the MeToo movement and
the fight for equal pay,
the ERA came back to life.
What do we want?
Equal rights!
When do we want it?
Now!
[REPORTER:] Democrats in
Congress are pushing for its
addition to the Constitution.
[NARRATOR:] The House of
Representatives voted to
remove the 1982 deadline.
But Senate Republicans and
the Trump administration
remain opposed.
And there's also the
question of the five states
that have tried to rescind their
ratifications of the amendment.
[SUK:] Ongoing litigation
makes it unclear when
or if it will be added.
[NARRATOR:] Today, a
century after the ERA
was first conceived,
it continues to hang in limbo.
Over the decades, women have
made gains through other
changes in laws and policies.
But the need for
ratification remains
for many of the women at the
center of the struggle now --
as a way to recognize the
work that's come before,
and to ensure women's
rights going forward.
When you enshrine my
constitutional rights,
as a human being equal to men,
well then that is the only
thing that's acceptable.
Persistence, faith, and
hope fuel the indomitable
spirit of this movement.
We got tired but
we did not faint.
We became weary but
we did not stop.
History demands that
we take a stand.
The struggle continues
and the work is not done.