What is Equal Rights Amendment?
The '''Equal Rights Amendment''' is a proposed amendment to the [[Constitution of the United States|US Constitution]] in the 1970s and 1980s to give men and women full equality under the law. [[Alice Paul]] first wrote the ERA, which was introduced in 1923 to [[United States Congress|Congress]] for the first time. It passed both houses of Congress in 1972 after protesting by the the [[National Organization for Women]] outside the [[United States Senate|Senate]]. Some people opposed it because women were already becoming equal in most areas and feared that women would be [[Conscription|drafted]] during the [[Vietnam War]]. The 35 states ratified it were too few for the amendment to pass (38 were needed). Most of the states that did not ratify it were in the [[Southern United States|South]], which is the most [[Conservatism|conservative]] and [[Religion|religious]] part of the country. Twenty-one states have a version of the ERA in their state constitutions. Sixteen of those states ratified the federal ERA.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lwv-fairfax.org/pdf_folder/era_ratifications.pdf|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20040427133504/http://www.lwv-fairfax.org/pdf_folder/era_ratifications.pdf|title=Ratification Status in the States and State ERAs|publisher=League of Women Voters, Fairfax Area|archivedate=April 27, 2004|format=PDF|access-date=January 13, 2012|url-status=dead}} the 21: AK, CA, CO, CT, HI, IA, MD, MA, MT, NH, NJ, NM, PA, TX, WA and WY; the 5: FL, IL, LA, UT and VA.</ref> The ERA was introduced into Congress each year from 1923 to 1972. It has been reintroduced in every session of Congress since 1982. In 2011, it was introduced in the [[United States House of Representatives|House of Representatives]] by 159 cosponsors and in hte Seante several senators.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://maloney.house.gov/press-release/rep-maloney-sen-menendez-reintroduce-equal-rights-amendment|title=Rep. Maloney, Sen. Menendez reintroduce Equal Rights Amendment|date=June 22, 2011|accessdate=December 18, 2011|archive-da