Culture

What Is The Equal Rights Amendment And Why Is It Back In The News?

Perhaps, like me, you remember learning about the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) towards the end of your American history class in high school. And it was just that – history. Now some members of the U.S. Congress are trying to resurrect the long-dead amendment, which fails to protect women at best and could actively harm them at worst.

By Evie Solheim3 min read
Activist Phyllis Schafly wearing a Stop ERA badge/Warren K. Leffler, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Warren K. Leffler/Public Domain

The ERA, an attempt to write so-called equal treatment of men and women into the U.S. Constitution, expired in the 1980s – long before many millennial and Gen Z women were born. But on Tuesday, February 28, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on the ERA as multiple Democratic lawmakers (plus one Republican) push to make it the law of the land.