1982-6-30 ERA fails

The original ERA, first proposed in 1923, was known as the “Lucretia Mott Amendment.” 

The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex. It seeks to end the legal distinctions between men and women in matters of divorce, property, employment, and other matters. The first version of an ERA was written by Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman and introduced in Congress in December 1923.

On March 22, 1972, the 1943 version of the ERA finally passed the Senate and the House of Representatives by the required two-thirds majority and was sent to the states for ratification. An original seven-year deadline was later extended by Congress to June 30, 1982. When this deadline expired, only 35 of the necessary 38 states (the constitutionally required three-fourths) had ratified the amendment. The ERA was therefore not yet a part of the U.S. Constitution. 

The 15 states whose legislatures did not ratify the Equal Rights Amendment by the 1982 deadline are: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, and Virginia.

In the 2010s, due in part to fourth-wave feminism and the Me Too movement, interest in getting the ERA adopted was revived. In 2017, Nevada became the first state to ratify the ERA after the expiration of both deadlines, and Illinois followed in 2018. In 2020, Virginia's General Assembly passed a ratification resolution for the ERA, claiming to bring the number of ratifications to 38. However, experts and advocates have acknowledged legal uncertainty about the consequences of the Virginian ratification, due to expired deadlines and five states' revocations.

2020-1-15 Virginia Approves the E.R.A., Becoming the 38th State to Back It: Virginia’s move is symbolic, and crosses the threshold of three-quarters of states needed for ratification. Yet the fate of the E.R.A. is far from decided. 

https://www.equalrightsamendment.org/faq . 

Phyllis Schlafly’s Lasting [Negative] Legacy in Defeating the E.R.A. .