The Status of the Equal Rights Amendment

02/17/2025

Before leaving office, President Biden declared that the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) had met all necessary requirements to become the law of the land. After years of organizing from The Feminist Front, Young Feminist Party, and numerous other organizations, we won this recognition of the ERA as the 28th Amendment from the President of the United States for the first time in the 101-year history of ERA organizing.

This happened because thousands of everyday people rose up to demand #ERANow. Thousands took actions with us from banner drops, die-ins, civil disobedience, calls, letters, lobby visits and more. This HUGE win for our movement has progressed the fight for equality and justice under the law but the fight is NOT over yet.

To gain the ERA’s protections against sex and gender discrimination and protect women and LGBTQ communities we must now win the fight to implement and enforce the 28th Amendment to advance gender, racial, and queer justice for all. Just three weeks into the Trump presidency, the urgent need for the protections the ERA can provide is clear. ERA advocates are strategizing around federal implementation of the Equal Rights Amendment. As founding partners of the #ERANow campaign that helped push President Biden to declare the Equal Rights Amendment as the law of the land, the Feminist Generation movement is helping to lead strategy around the next steps in the fight for equal rights for all.

Actions we are pursuing to support the Equal Rights Amendment include:

• Pushing State Legislatures to affirm that the Equal Rights Amendment is the law of the land

• Organizing for the twelve remaining states to ratify the federal Equal Rights Amendment, sending a powerful message that all of America demands and deserves equality under the law.

• Pressuring State Attorney Generals to affirm the Equal Rights Amendment is the law of the land as chief legal officers in their states.

• Passing expansive State Equal Rights Amendments in nearly half of all U.S. states which still do not guarantee protections against sex and gender discrimination in their state constitutions.

• Demanding the U.S. Congress remove the arbitrary deadline on ratification and affirm the Equal Rights Amendment to bolster our position against future legal challenges.

• Urging the National Archivist to perform the ministerial duty of ERA certification and publication, as directed by the White House, to bolster our position against future legal challenges.

The success of the #ERANow movement shows the power of when the people come together. Our generation refuses to back down, it’s time to build feminists futures for all.