Zonta International is a global organization of individuals dedicated to building a better world for women and girls. The Zonta USA Advocacy Action Center is a tool for our members in the United States and other individuals who share our commitment to gender equality to take action to improve the lives of women and girls. With your help, we can make a difference. In addition to the actions below, click here to support our joint efforts with UNICEF USA to end child marriage in the United States.
The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees people of all genders equal treatment and due process under the law. However, women are not specifically mentioned anywhere in the U.S. Constitution. Even though, the Fourteenth Amendment recognizes equality for all United States citizens, gender discrimination is not subjected to strict scrutiny, making it easier for governmental bodies to discriminate on the basis of gender.
On March 22, 1972, Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment with more than the two thirds required. In 2020, Virginia became the 38th and last state necessary to ratify it. After the required three-quarters of states had ratified the amendment, Congress then decided to include a time limit for ratification in the joint resolution from 1972, which prevented the ERA from becoming the 28th Amendment.
Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) introduced a resolution to remove the deadline for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment that was added after the required number of states had already ratified it.
“The fight for equal rights has persisted since the earliest days of our nation’s history,” said Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan. “From the first women’s rights convention at Seneca Falls 175 years ago, to the introduction of the Equal Rights Amendment 100 years ago and beyond, generations of women have fought to ensure that our nation lives up to its promise of liberty and justice for all. Progress has been slow and steady, propelled by the abolitionists, the Civil Rights Movement, the Suffrage Movement, and the Women’s Rights Movement. Each of these movements included women of color on the frontlines, even when they were the last to benefit from the work. I’m proud to have followed in the footsteps of those before me and led Virginia to become the 38th and final state necessary to ratify the ERA. Now in Congress, I stand united alongside ERA Caucus Co-Chairs Pressley and Bush and our ERA Caucus members in affirming the ERA as the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”
Please use our pre-drafted letters to urge your representative to co-sponsor and support the removal of the deadline on ratification of the equal rights amendment (H.J.Res.25). If they have already sponsored or co-sponsored the bill, you can send a message of thanks.