Constitutional Equality

The MN NOW Constitutional Equality Committee works to add an amendment guaranteeing protections for gender equality in both our federal and state constitutions.

While the passage of legislation has moved us toward gender equality, legislation can and has been reversed by future legislation. The only way to ensure that we continue moving forward and not back again, is to ensure gender equality in the bedrock of our government, the constitution.

The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), written by suffragist Alice Paul, was introduced in Congress in 1923 for the first time. In 1972, it easily passed both houses of Congress and went to the state legislatures for ratification.

The resolution in Congress proposed that the amendment set a ratification deadline of March 22, 1979. Through 1977, only 35 of the required 38 states ratified the amendment. A joint resolution of Congress extended the ratification deadline to June 30, 1982, but no further states ratified the amendment before the passing of the second deadline.

MN NOW’s strategy to pass the ERA on the federal level requires removal of the imposed ratification deadline. The states listed below did not ratify the ERA, but renewed efforts to vote for ratification have surfaced in Illinois and Virginia.

Florida
Illinois-passed the Senate.
Louisiana
Missouri
Nevada
North Carolina
Oklahoma
South Carolina
Virginia

Minnesota ratified the federal ERA in 1973, but unlike some states, did not pass an Equal Rights Amendment to their own state constitution. MN NOW sponsored the MN C.A.F.E. (Constitutional Amendment for Equality) Coalition to pass a state ERA in 2010, but the legislation proposed by the coalition received only one of the four required committee hearings to move the ERA to the House and Senate floors for a vote.

MN NOW’s strategy to add an ERA to Minnesota’s constitution involves developing a renewed coalition of individuals and organizations to propose and lobby for legislation that would add an ERA to Minnesota’s constitution.