Gloria Steinem was right: The ERA is dead
Feminist leader Gloria Steinem has died at age 92. One thing that will not get the attention it deserves is her appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show on Jan. 14, 1986. Asked about the status of the Equal Rights Amendment, she explained that “because it was not ratified in the nine years allotted to it, it now has to start the process over again and be passed by the House and the Senate and go through all of the states’ ratification process.” She was right.
TL;DR
- The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was proposed by Congress in 1972 with a seven-year ratification deadline.
- By the original deadline, only 35 states had ratified it, and five later rescinded their support.
- An attempted extension of the deadline in 1978 was found unconstitutional by the only federal court to address it.
- Arguments that the deadline is invalid due to its placement in the resolution's text, rather than the amendment itself, are not supported by historical practice or legal precedent.
- The Congressional Research Service has repeatedly stated the ERA formally died on June 30, 1982.
- Gloria Steinem accurately described the ERA's unratified status in 1986.