Why we Lost the ERA

The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which would have guaranteed women equal rights to men, passed Congress with an overwhelming majority in 1972. During the following ten years, the public repeatedly endorsed it in opinion surveys. Yet, for all the favor it enjoyed in the abstract, the ERA was never able to muster concrete support in enough states to become the law of the land. In this provocative and controversial book, the author argues that the ERA failed because it did not result in substantive changes in the position of women. The monograph traces the history of the Equal Rights Amendment, looks at the Stop ERA movement, and discusses the political aspects of ERA's failure to pass.