ERA bumper sticker

(Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections & Archives, Collection MSS 225, Box 19, Folder 10.)

ERA bumper sticker

(Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections & Archives, Collection MSS 225, Box 19, Folder 10.)

Following the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, activist Alice Paul began advocating for an Equal Rights Amendment. She first introduced the amendment in 1923 and continued to do so in every session of Congress until it passed the House of Representatives and the Senate on March 22, 1972. The amendment then went to the states for ratification, but failed to achieve enough votes. Opponents of the ERA took issue with the amendment’s vague language and argued that women would lose important protections based on their sex. The Equal Rights Amendment consisted of the following three sections:

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.