While we genuinely wish Biden’s declaration was true, we wanted to take this opportunity to provide a deeply necessary reality check: The ERA is still NOT the law of the land, and, unfortunately, even a social media post from POTUS doesn’t change that.
We are grateful to President Biden for his efforts and allyship in the long fight to enshrine the ERA. However, we are disappointed for two reasons.
1.) That he would knowingly post disinformation* causing Americans to doubt the accuracy of his administration’s statements.
2.) That he felt the ERA was a low enough priority that this “declaration” could wait until his final weekday in office.
*First, allow us to add the necessary context to President Biden’s declaration:
In 2020, Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the ERA, meaning the amendment officially had the needed 3/4 of the country’s approval – although a few of those ratifications came in after the 1982 deadline.
Three years later, Congress tried to lift the 1982 deadline to allow for the ERA’s ratification, but the measure didn’t reach the required 60-vote threshold in the Senate.
As NBC News reported, “Biden’s move is largely symbolic, and it’s unclear if his statement will have any impact. The leader of the National Archives has said that the amendment cannot be certified because it wasn’t ratified before a deadline set by Congress.”
We need more women in office. It’s reasonable to believe that, if we’d had more women in our government over the past five decades, the ERA actually WOULD be the law of the land. If you agree that we need more women in office, chip in today. →
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We are building a future in which women’s rights are given the prioritization they deserve – and we deserve more than a symbolic declaration at the 11th hour. We hope you’ll join us.
Jordan Zaslow
Founder & Executive Director of Her Bold Move
