The Long and Fought Battle for the Equal Rights Amendment in Virginia: From Rejection to Ratification

The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution that would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, has been a long-standing priority for women’s rights activists. The ERA’s journey to ratification has been a complex and arduous process, with Virginia playing a significant role in the struggle.

Virginia’s history with the ERA dates back to the early 20th century when the state rejected the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. Despite this, Virginia became one of the first states to consider the ERA, with suffragist leader Alice Paul drafting and introducing it to Congress in 1923. However, the ERA did not gain enough support in Congress to be sent to the states for ratification until 1972.

The House and Senate passed the ERA by the required two-thirds votes, and it was sent to the states for ratification within a seven-year deadline. Although some states immediately passed it, activists in Virginia soon realized that ratifying the ERA in their state would be a challenging task. The state was then solidly conservative, and the legislature was almost entirely male.

To address this, women’s rights activists worked to elect like-minded candidates to the state legislature. Tensions rose as the deadline approached, and some activists resorted to civil disobedience, including chaining themselves to the White House and scaling the White House fence to deliver ERA petitions to President Ronald Reagan.

Despite these efforts, Virginia fell one vote short in the state Senate of passing the ERA in 1982. Activists were disappointed and frustrated, as some candidates who had promised support for the ERA had changed their minds once elected. They tried to keep the ERA alive by filing suit in the Virginia Supreme Court, but the court did not take up the matter.

By the June 1982 deadline, only 35 states had ratified the ERA, three short of the threshold needed to add it to the Constitution. The future of the ERA looked uncertain, and efforts to revive it seemed like a colossal waste of time.

However, the ratification of the 27th Amendment, a congressional pay measure first proposed by James Madison, in the early 1990s helped reawaken efforts to ratify the ERA. The argument was that, like the 27th Amendment, which had been dormant for over 200 years before being ratified, the ERA could still be ratified even if the deadline had passed.

This new legal theory gave hope to ERA supporters, and they renewed their efforts to ratify the amendment. In 2020, Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the ERA, marking a significant milestone in the century-long struggle for women’s rights.

The passage of the ERA in Virginia represents not only a potential milestone for the amendment’s ratification but also a remarkable evolution for a state that had previously blocked the legislative effort to empower women. The journey to ratification has been long and arduous, but the determination and persistence of women’s rights activists have finally paid off.

Passage of the Equal Rights Amendment today is a result of women coming together over decades, refusing to suffer in silence as we are discriminated against, paid less, and subjected to gender-based violence. The ERA’s ratification is a testament to the power of grassroots activism and the resilience of the women’s rights movement.

In conclusion, the Equal Rights Amendment’s ratification in Virginia is a significant step towards ensuring gender equality under the Constitution. The long and fought battle for the ERA’s ratification in Virginia serves as a reminder of the importance of persistence and determination in the face of adversity. The ERA’s ratification is not only a victory for women’s rights but also a victory for democracy and the rule of law.

The feminist activists of the 1960s, ’70s, and early ’80s weren’t the first to push for an Equal Rights Amendment. Suffragist leader Alice Paul, who fought hard to pass the 19th Amendment, drafted the first ERA and introduced it to Congress in 1923. The ERA’s journey to ratification has been a complex and arduous process, with Virginia playing a significant role in the struggle. The passage of the ERA in Virginia represents a remarkable evolution for a state that had previously blocked the legislative effort to empower women. The determination and persistence of women’s rights activists have finally paid off, and the ERA’s ratification is a testament to the power of grassroots activism and the resilience of the women’s rights movement.