Equal Rights Amendment, Ratification Demonstrations, 1970s

The battle to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was a key component of the women’s rights movement in the 1970s. The amendment, first proposed in 1923, said “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.” In a bipartisan vote Congress approved sending the amendment to the states for ratification in 1972. However, Congress included a deadline for ratification, which had not been the case with previous amendments sent to the states for ratification. Virginia became a battleground state, and thousands of Virginians involved themselves in the fight on both sides of this issue.

Of the 38 states needed to make the amendment part of the U.S. Constitution, 35 ratified the ERA by 1977. In Virginia's General Assembly, powerful male legislators refused to release the amendment out of committee for a full vote by the legislature. In this way, legislators would not have to go on the record as taking a position on the amendment. Most Americans, including almost 60 percent of Virginians, strongly supported ERA, but anti-ERA activists began to organize after the amendment was sent to the states. They argued that the ERA would enable same-sex marriage, would end single-sex bathrooms, and would require women to be drafted into the military. Because the ERA had generally been supported, pro-ERA advocates were caught off-guard by these arguments, many of which were ungrounded in fact. Late in 1970s they organized to work for ratification in three more states.

In Virginia, a broad coalition of activists from such organizations as the League of Women Voters, National Organization for Women, the Virginia Business and Professional Women, and labor unions banded together to fight for the ERA’s release from committee to a full assembly vote.  In Virginia’s conservative political climate many of these activists tailored their advocacy to avoid acting or appearing in ways that would draw criticism from legislators. Just as during the woman suffrage movement of the late-19th and early-20th centuries, this disagreement over how to secure support from white male politicians divided women, some of whom believed that more direct protests would be more effective.

Pro-ERA activists could not secure enough support to secure Virginia's ratification of the amendment before the deadline of 1982. That year, they had enough votes to enable the Democratic Lieutenant Governor Charles S. Robb to break a tie in favor of ERA in the state senate. However, the senate had instead required that a supermajority was needed to ratify. Additionally, an anti-ERA politician left the state to prevent a tie vote from occurring. The House of Delegates never voted on ERA at all. 

This 1974 newsletter published by Virginia ERA Central illustrates the tactics employed by activists during the 1970s and 1980s. Virginia ERA Central was an umbrella organization of many different groups, including the National Organization for Women, the American Association of University Women, and the Virginia Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs. It sponsored professional and volunteer lobbyists, held events during the legislative session, and brought speakers to speak before House and Senate committees.

Later, members from these groups formed the Virginia ERA Ratification Council, which intensified the lobbying effort. It formed a Political Action Committee (PAC) to help elect pro-ERA candidates to the General Assembly and succeeded in ousting some long-term conservative legislators. It was for this reason, some believed, that the PAC’s leader, Marianne Fowler, and her colleague Jean Marshall Clarke were targeted and arrested at an impromptu protest at the state capitol in February 1978, which is depicted in this photograph. At that time, a committee of the House of Delegates had refused to release the amendment for a full legislative vote. Fowler and Clarke were charged with tresspassing and assaulting a police officer. The American Civil Liberties Union took their case, which was later dismissed.  

In the 21st century, some Virginia women reactivated the fight for ERA ratification. They suceeded in January 2020, when Virginia’s General Assembly voted to ratifiy the ERA, becoming the 38th state to do so. Because the deadline for ratification had passed, the ERA has not yet been certified as part of the U.S. Constitution.

Citations: Virginia ERA Central, “Legislative Bulletin #1,” January 25, 1974, Margaret Williams Papers, 1970-1985 (Box 1, Folder 5), Accession 32504, Library of Virginia, and Bob Brown, Photograph, Richmond Times-Dispatch, front page, February 10, 1978.

USII.8, CE.3, CE.6, CE.9, VUS.17, GOVT.2, GOVT.3, GOVT.10, GOVT.11

Preview Activity

Scan It: Read the document. What words stand out to you, and why?

Post-Activities

Analyze: Read through this newsletter and construct a chart with the following titles: Actions/Behavior/Assumptions. Under each title, provide examples from the newsletter. 

• What were the actions advocated by Virginia ERA Central? 
• What were the behaviors advocated by Virginia ERA Central?
• What do these actions and behaviors tell you about the assumptions made by the organization’s leadership about what would make for a more successful argument for ERA? What do you think about these assumptions, and why?

Image Analysis: Look at the photograph. What story is the photographer trying to tell here? What do you see in the background, and why do you think he included it? How is Jean Marshall Clarke dressed, and what do you make of her clothing? How would you describe this picture?