We the Women: The Unstoppable Mothers of the Equal Rights Amendment

Professor Julie Suk, a distinguished legal scholar, builds off a century of momentum, telling the heroic stories of women who protested, resisted, and persisted to establish their constitutional rights.

The year 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing women’s constitutional right to vote. But have we come far enough?

After the adoption and ratification of the 19th Amendment, a bold group of women proposed the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). It took Congress almost 50 years to adopt it in 1972. The fight for ratification in the states took another 50 years, culminating in Virginia’s historic ratification in January 2020.

Why did the ERA take so long? Is it too late to add it to the Constitution? And what could it do for women?

In We the Women, Suk follows the history of the ERA through the voices of the relentless women who pursued it. For over 100 years, women’s efforts to enshrine their rights in the Constitution have faced opposition and subterfuge. And, despite significant gains, the triumphs of gender equality have not met the needs of all women- especially working mothers. Exploring the ERA’s past and future, Suk explains hot-button issues such as pregnancy discrimination, violence against women, and unequal pay.