One thing people quite frequently ask is

what laws is [the Equal Rights Amendment] going change.

What do we need it for right this minute?

The answer is,

it's not going change many laws

right now, but that's fine.

It's like the free speech amendment.

When the framers put it in the Bill of Rights,

they didn't think, "What laws

is it going to change right now?"

They thought, "This is a good principle

to have in a constitution."

Equal rights for women is a principle

that should be in the Constitution.

It won't change many laws right now.

But down the pike, when the Supreme Court

meets this, or that or the other problem,

there will be a principle in the Constitution

that says women have equal rights to men.

It really began starting before 1848,

but then in the 1848 Convention,

then finally, finally, finally

women got the vote in 1920.

Then, in 1923, the same women who got the vote for women

put the Equal Rights Amendment before the Congress,

and it was voted down.

They put it in the Congress the next year,

it was voted down.

They put it in the Congress the next year,

it was voted down.

Until the modern women's rights movement,

it'd just languished there.

But in that great surge in the 60s

some women took it forward,

and it passed lots and lots of states.

It ended up three states short.

Only

in the late 90s

did some law school students,

who had been inspired by some work

that a young man at the University of Texas had done,

they picked it up and they realized,

actually, this deadline

is a deadline that was set by Congress.

If Congress sets the deadline by majority rule,

it can take away the deadline by majority rule.

In fact, we've gone forward,

and we have just one state left

to ratify the ERA.

This is really a bipartisan issue.

You know how polarized the United States is right now.

We're likely to be pushed in various directions,

but the Republican Party was the party

that was very much the supporter

of the Equal Rights Amendment at the beginning.

The Democratic Party going along,

dragging its heels for complicated reasons.

But even now, even in this polarized era,

you find in many, many states bipartisan support,

or otherwise it wouldn't have been able

to get through those states.