John,

In 1923, the Equal Rights Amendment was introduced to both houses of Congress, authored by women’s rights activist Alice Paul. In truth, the ERA should never have been necessary, but over two centuries ago, in 1787, women were left out of the Constitution by design.

It’s time for us to include women in the text and the meaning of the Constitution -- by design. It seems outrageous that such a basic principle as the equality between the sexes before the law would not be explicitly defined.

As Congresswoman Cori Bush notes, “We are left out of the very Constitution we are sworn to protect. We protect it, but it doesn’t protect us. So let’s change that.”

The Amendment has met all the Constitutional requirements: in 1972 it passed both houses of Congress with well over the needed 2/3 vote, and it was ratified by 3/4 of the state legislatures as of 2020. But Congress set an arbitrary time limit for ratification, found nowhere in the Constitution, and the Trump administration used this excuse to block its enactment.

As a result, now, more than 100 years after it was first introduced, the Equal Rights Amendment has still not been enacted. The time has come to make the ERA part of the Constitution. Sign the petition to Congress today!

When Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was once asked what Amendment she would most like to see, she immediately thought of future generations of American girls and women, and the impact the ERA would have on her own progeny. She replied, "I would like my granddaughters, when they pick up the Constitution, to see that notion -- that women and men are persons of equal stature -- I’d like them to see that is a basic principle of our society."

Ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment should be a real no-brainer. To finally enshrine gender equality in the US Constitution would have far-reaching impact, affecting equal pay, protecting survivors of violence based on gender, and informing discrimination cases in the workplace and the larger society.

As Alice Paul, the author of the ERA said, the movement for women’s rights is multifaceted and depends on the actions of many. She described it as “a sort of mosaic. Each of us puts in one little stone, and then you get a great mosaic at the end.”

Now, 100 years later, we finally have the opportunity to realize Alice Paul’s vision of the grand mosaic of equality. With the support of a Democratic administration, Congress can remove the arbitrary deadline and formally add the ERA as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution. It’s shocking this wasn’t done long ago, but now, at last, Congress can ensure the Constitution will explicitly guarantee to women the equal protection of the law.

Demand Congress take action to ratify the ERA now!

In these times, when every day brings some new attack on the rights of women, thank you for standing up and taking action today.

- Amanda

Amanda Ford, Director
Democracy for America
Advocacy Fund