Q: Who was the original author of the first version of the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution?
A: Alice Paul helped lead a successful campaign for women’s suffrage that resulted in the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. Paul went to undergrad at Swarthmore College and went on to earn an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, her LL.B from the Washington College of Law and and LL.M and a Doctor in Civil Laws from American University. In the midst of all of that, she joined the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA).
She later helped found the National Woman’s Party in 1916. She wrote the first version of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment — also known as the Lucretia Mott Amendment — to the Constitution in 1923. The ERA didn’t make it through the House and Senate until 1972. After being passed by the Senate, the ERA needed 38 states to ratify it, but only 35 voted in favor by the June 30, 1982 deadline. Efforts to pass an equality movement continue to this day, although nearly half of U.S. states have adopted the ERA into their constitutions.
