Fears of “Injuring Weaker, Fragile Sex” Spurred ERA Opponents

So they took it as a crusade and beat it into the ground

The Equal Rights Amendment:

“Equality of Rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”

June 20, 2017: (Updated 11 February 2018) “Such a simple thing,” Suffragette leader Alice Paul told me in 1970. “You’d think everyone would be for it.” Nearly 50 years later, the U.S. government still doesn’t recognize women as legally equal to men. The glorious rise of the ERA and the movement that tore it apart are illustrated in many of these 1970s’ articles. In 1920, Alice Paul, leading an undaunted band of suffragettes, finally pried the right for women to vote from the government. Three years later, in 1923, she launched the ERA, the amendment aimed at bringing women legally up to the same level as men.

To begin with, the ERA languished in Senate and Congressional committees for nearly 50 years before Congresswoman Martha Griffiths (D-Mich.) extracted the amendment in 1970. Two years later, the ERA easily passed in both Congress and the Senate, went out to the states to be ratified, racking up votes in many states.

Then along came Phyllis Schlafly with her StopERA right wing cohorts and scared housewives out of their wits. Their husbands would no longer protect and support them, feminists would take over their husband’s jobs, they would be drafted into the Army — and other horrors. By 1982, the ERA bit the dust, three short of the states needed for ratification.

The 1970s had been a decade studded with success for women’s rights. Although there were only between 11 and 16 women in Congress during those years, they were the representatives who gave a thought to sponsoring bills that would benefit women. But the congresswomen couldn’t have passed a one if it weren’t for their male colleagues. Those bills benefited from broad support across the aisle. Congress passed the ERA 354–24, the Senate, 84–8!

The heartbreaking defeat of the ERA as it failed ratification was a forerunner of the bleak prospects for women’s equality in 2017. The ERA had its brief moments of glory in those days before Republicans took over the government, and those serving weren’t voting in unison. Or were not locked into anti-women attitudes. These 1970s articles illustrate the radiant rise of the ERA, and the forces that derailed it.

1. Alice Paul — The Last Suffragette, Gannett News Service, June 16, 1970
2. Equality Now? It’s Not Every Woman’s Cup of Tea, The Washington Star-News, March 11, 1973
3. Last Round for the Equal Rights Amendment, The Washington Star, October 6, 1971
4. ERA or No ERA? — Here’s the 1973 Scorecard, The Washington Star-News, March 11, 1973
5. Martha Griffiths on ERA Aims and Its Foes, Q and A, The Washington Star, January 19, 1976
6. Phyllis Schlafly: ERA is Anti-Family Fraud, Leaves Wives Without Support, The Washington Star, January 19, 1976 — NEW 2nd December 2017
7. The Myths and Truths of Divorce and Its Frequent Devastation for Women, The Washington Star News, September 24, 1972 — NEW 26 January 2018
8. NOW Leader Cites Reasons for Anti-Feminist Backlash Threatening the ERA: Among them, campaigns by the Right and by Corporations that are scaring housewives, The Washington Star, March 26, 1976 — NEW 11 February 2018
9. Cathy Douglas: The ERA Will Aid Homebound Mothers, Divorced Dads: Moms will get their own Social Security. In split families, Dads, will have a better chance to share child custody, The Washington Star, April 8, 1975 — NEW 11 February 2018

[Section C (#45) in a collection of more than 100 newspaper articles by Judy Flander from the second wave of the Women’s Movement reflecting the fervor and ingenuity of the women who rode the wave.]