A brief history of ratification in the states

The Equal Rights Amendment was passed by Congress on March 22, 1972 and sent to the states for ratification. In order to be added to the Constitution, it needed approval by legislatures in three-fourths (38) of the 50 states.

By 1977, the legislatures of 35 states had approved the amendment. In 1978, Congress voted to extend the original March 1979 deadline to June 30, 1982. However, no additional states voted yes before that date, and the ERA fell three states short of ratification.

The 15 states that did not ratify the Equal Rights Amendment before the 1982 deadline were Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, and Virginia.

Since formulation of the "three-state strategy" for ratification in 1994, ERA bills have been introduced in subsequent years in one or more legislative sessions in ten of the unratified states (Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Utah, and Virginia).

Between 1995 and 2016, ERA ratification bills were released from committee in some states and were passed by one but not both houses of the legislature in two of them. In Illinois, the House but not the Senate passed an ERA ratification bill in 2003, while the Senate but not the House did so in 2014. In five of the six years between 2011 and 2016, the Virginia Senate passed a resolution ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment, but the House of Delegates never released a companion bill from committee for a full vote on the House floor.

On March 22, 2017, 45 years to the day after Congress passed the ERA, Nevada became the 36th state to ratify it. On May 30, 2018, Illinois became the 37th state. And, in a historic vote to become the 38th state to ratify, the state of Virginia voted to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment on January 15, 2020.

ERA bills have also been introduced in the legislatures of Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, Utah, and Virginia.

Learn more about the history of the Equal Rights Amendment here.