Note: while this blog focuses on women, gender-based equality impacts all of us — for example, the ERA would establish important protections for members of the genderfluid and nonbinary communities.

It’s 2024. 101 years have passed since the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was proposed, and women’s equal rights are still not enshrined in the US Constitution.

Take a moment to let that sink in.

For more than 100 years, women have been demanding full citizenship in the United States through access to basic, fundamental rights: voting, property ownership, and equal pay, just to name a few. Progress has been slow, even grinding to a halt and sliding backwards at times. And while we have advanced as a society in so many ways, a nationwide guarantee of gender equality remains unfulfilled.

President Biden, with the weeks that remain of your presidency, the mission that began a century ago is now on you. Enshrine the Equal Rights Amendment into the Constitution. The time could not be more urgent. It must be done now.

The ERA was first proposed in 1923 by suffragist Alice Paul. It states: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” 

Tell President Biden to Publish the ERA

Despite being passed by Congress and meeting all ratification requirements thanks to Virginia — the 38th and final necessary state to ratify it — the ERA remains painfully absent from the Constitution, with devastating consequences. The ERA is the only duly ratified constitutional amendment not to be added to the Constitution, which begs the question: Exactly what are we waiting for?

According to a 2020 study from the Pew Research Center, eight in ten US adults (78%) say they favor adding the ERA to the US Constitution. In August, the American Bar Association (ABA), the largest voluntary association of lawyers globally, adopted a resolution recognizing the Equal Rights Amendment as the 28th Amendment to the US Constitution and urged its implementation. The American people want US citizens to have full rights regardless of gender, and as the ABA affirmed, we have all the tools we need to do so.

Women in the US continue to battle systematic discrimination in the form of unequal pay, workplace harassment, pregnancy discrimination, domestic violence, limited access to comprehensive health care, and more.

We, along with our allies and advocates, have marched for miles. Our voices have become hoarse as we have peacefully chanted and rallied to simply be recognized as equal under the law. Along the way we knew you were on our side.

President Biden, you have spoken about the importance of women’s rights and freedoms. And now with just weeks left in your term, we call on you to use your power and fulfill your responsibility to instruct the US Archivist to certify and publish the ERA in the US Constitution. Take this action for the promise of democracy, the American people you’ve served for more than half of your lifetime, and for the women who have fought and sacrificed blood, sweat, and tears to be recognized as equal in this country.

President Biden, it’s time for you to take us to the finish line and make good on your promises. Stand strong and deliver. You hold the power to do it for all Americans.

Amending the Constitution is the only moral path forward.