Lea DeLaria, Zakiya Thomas on Life After Roe
In March of 1972, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) — a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution aimed at preventing discrimination on the basis of sex — passed the U.S.
Senate after already clearing the House months earlier. It had even earned the backing of then-President Richard Nixon along the way.
All that remained was for a minimum of 38 states to ratify the legislation for it to become a constitutional amendment.To date, the ERA has not been published into the Constitution, despite the ability of Congress to act.Beyond a powerful cabal of faceless operatives pulling the strings in Washington to block the ERA, it was a nationwide network of anti-feminist activists that successfully condemned the amendment to legislative purgatory to this day.
They acted with both urgency and patience to block progress with a public pressure campaign and the cultivation of a quiet coalition behind the scenes.
