Congress and the ERA

26 January 2009 Congress and the ERA The Equal Rights Amendment was a constitutional amendment that guaranteed that the “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 this paper I will analyze the policy process in the critical years from the ERA's discharge from committee in 1970 to its passage through Congress in 1972 through both primary documents and scholarly opinion. By thoroughly examining the controversy over the ERA through the views and strategies of those advocating and opposing it, I will show how the momentum for social change characterized by the ERA is reflected in the governing institution of the United States, and furthermore I will illustrate how the process of amending the Constitution is used to advance or retract social agendas. The ERA was drafted in 1923 by Alice Paul and the recently formed National Women’s Party (NWP) and introduced in Congress the same year by Senator Charles Curtis (R-KS) and Representative Daniel Anthony (R-KS).With the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920 women were granted the right to vote, but the amendments passage also provoked substantial controversy about the proper place of women in society.Many of the women who had advocated for suffrage were concerned with protecting women and by extension the children who were a woman’s primary responsibility, from mistreatment and exploitation.These protectionists, among whom Eleanor Roosevelt was a vigorous advocate, felt suffrage was necessary for the