ERA | WOSU Public Media

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., speaks Wednesday at a press conference ahead of the House's vote to remove the ratification deadline for the Equal Rights Amendment.

House Votes To Revive Equal Rights Amendment, Removing Ratification Deadline

Danielle Kurtzleben

Changing the deadline is one way ERA proponents are trying to make the amendment part of the Constitution, but there isn't legal consensus on the tactic, and the Senate is expected to kill the bill.

Both houses of Virginia's legislature voted to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, but the ERA's future is uncertain: Its original deadline elapsed decades ago. Here, an ERA supporter reacts to a Virginia Senate committee's vote to advance the ERA amendment last week.

News Partners

Virginia Ratifies The Equal Rights Amendment, Decades After The Deadline

Bill Chappell

The ERA's provisions include a guarantee that "equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged ... on account of sex." But its legal status is uncertain.

"Honk if you love equality," reads the side of the bus Virginia lawmakers, including Del. Jennifer Caroll Foy (pictured speaking), have taken around the state to promote ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment.

News Partners

Virginia Could Be The State To Give Women Equal Rights Nationwide

Whittney Evans

A bipartisan coalition of Virginia lawmakers is working to make the state the 38th and final one needed to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Illinois has ratified the Equal Rights Amendment, more than 40 years after an estimated 10,000 people marched on the Capitol building in Springfield, Ill., to urge approval.

News Partners

One More To Go: Illinois Ratifies Equal Rights Amendment

Bill Chappell

The passage comes 36 years after the ratification deadline set by Congress. Some say the votes are merely symbolic — but the ERA's backers disagree.