Constitutional Timeline: The Equal Rights Amendment

Congress proposes the Equal Rights Amendment and submits it to the states for ratification under Article V of the United States Constitution.

The amendment provides:

“Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”

Congress includes a seven-year ratification deadline in the proposing clause.

By the expiration of the extended ratification period, 35 states have ratified the amendment — three states short of the three-fourths requirement (38 states).

Nevada ratifies the Equal Rights Amendment.

Illinois ratifies the Equal Rights Amendment.

Virginia ratifies the Equal Rights Amendment as the 38th state.

Thirty-eight states constitute three-fourths of the fifty states, meeting the ratification threshold established by Article V of the Constitution.

The Archivist of the United States declines to certify and publish the amendment, citing legal opinions regarding the ratification deadline.

Litigation and constitutional debate continue regarding the recognition and publication of the Equal Rights Amendment following ratification by 38 states.

The amendment has not been incorporated into the officially published Constitution.

The National ERA Publication Task Force was established in February 2021 to address the gap between ratification and recognition.