Rep. Martha Griffiths Forces Proposed ERA Amendment Out of Committee
Rep. Martha Griffiths (D–Michigan) used a legislative maneuver to force the proposed Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) out of committee and on to the House of Representatives floor for debate and a vote.
The ERA had been drafted and first proposed by feminist and women’s suffrage activist Alice Paul on July 21, 1923. It came to a vote on several times in the Senate over the years, but was never adopted or even considered by the House.
The version put forward by Rep. Griffiths was approved by Congress and sent to the states for ratification on March 22, 1972. It was quickly ratified by more than 30 states, but then a conservative backlash set in and the amendment was never ratified.
The text of the ERA:
Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification
Learn more about the ERA: http://www.equalrightsamendment.org/
Read: Mary Frances Berry, Why ERA Failed: Politics, Women’s Rights, and the Amending Process of the Constitution (1988)
Learn about Alice Paul, author of the ERA: Jill Zahniser and Amelia Fry, Alice Paul: Claiming Power (2014)
Learn more about Martha Griffiths and the ERA: https://www.archives.gov/legislative/features/griffiths/
View a chronology of the history of the ERA here
Learn more: http://www.visitthecapitol.gov/exhibition-hall/archives/images/2578?detail-image-node=2581