Guest Column: A Look at First Ladies' Influence on the ERA 100 Years Later
Guest Column: A Look at First Ladies' Influence on the ERA 100 Years Later
By Karen M. Kedrowski
At 10:05 a.m. on Oct. 20, 1978, then President Jimmy Carter entered the cabinet room of White House where he spent five minutes in a signing ceremony extending the deadline for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment until June 30, 1982, presidential records show.
There, he addressed guests attending the ceremony and members of the press.
At 10:10 a.m., Carter left the Cabinet Room and returned to the Oval Office where he participated in several meetings until 12:38 p.m. when he returned to the second floor residence where he had lunch with First Lady Rosalynn Carter and friends Manolo de Piqueras and his wife, Maria Angelica of Lima, Peru.
This Friday will be 45 years since Carter signed the extension. The ceremony was remarkably short in comparison to the decades spent advocating for the constitutional proposed amendment, designed to guarantee equal legal rights for American citizens regardless of sex. Unfortunately, the extension would prove not to be enough time.
Today, East Wing Magazine is excited to announce the installation of our first guest column by Karen M. Kedrowski, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics and the Whitaker-Lindgren Faculty Fellow and Professor of Political Science at Iowa State University. Kedrowski walks us through the 100-year ERA timeline by spotlighting first ladies and their engagement in the amendment as it has unfolded over time.
By Karen M. Kedrowski
Kedrowski is the director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics and the Whitaker-Lindgren Faculty Fellow and Professor of Political Science at Iowa State University. Her most recent book is “Walking the Gendered Tightrope: Theresa May and Nancy Pelosi as Legislative Leaders,” coauthored with Melissa Haussman (University of Michigan Press, 2023).
The Equal Rights Amendment was first introduced into Congress 100 years ago, in 1923, and ratification efforts continue today. The ERA’s history spanned the White House careers of 17 first ladies, from Florence Harding to Dr. Jill Biden, and the legislation would prohibit any forms of discrimination on the basis of sex, making any such distinctions unconstitutional.
After the ratification of the 19th amendment (women’s suffrage), which guaranteed women the right to vote, Alice Paul, leader of the National Woman’s Party (NWP), devoted the remainder of her life to adding the ERA to the U.S. Constitution. The proposed constitutional amendment eventually was passed by Congress in 1972 with a deadline for ratification by March 1979. In all, 38 states would need to approve the amendment. Throughout that time, first ladies have played roles in the ERA’s complex, yet still evolving, history.
The ERA’s history spans the White House careers of 17 first ladies, from Florence Harding to Dr. Jill Biden.
Social feminist Eleanor Roosevelt opposed the ERA
The ERA enjoyed little popular support in its earliest decades. There is no record that Florence Harding, Grace Coolidge, or Lou Hoover made any public statements on the ERA during their tenure as first lady. Eleanor Roosevelt, however, was a vocal opponent of the ERA, even though the national Democratic Party 1944 platform included a plank supporting it. Eleanor Roosevelt’s opposition to the ERA stemmed from her Progressive and “social feminist” roots. Social feminists were concerned about improving the lives of immigrants and the working class who often lived and worked in substandard and dangerous conditions. Roosevelt supported unionization as the means to better working conditions for women, such as minimum wage and maximum work hours, mandatory breaktime, and overtime prohibitions.
Roosevelt sought these protections because of women’s roles as wives and mothers. To her, women needed workplace protections because they also had responsibility for the home and family. ERA advocates readily admitted that sex-specific worker protections would be unconstitutional if the ERA was enacted, thus negating many of the policies Roosevelt vocally supported. Paul and the NWP unsuccessfully lobbied both president and Mrs. Roosevelt to support the ERA.
Mrs. Roosevelt’s successors — Mamie Eisenhower, Jacqueline Kennedy, and Lady Bird Johnson — did not actively campaign in favor or against the ERA while serving as first lady, primarily because the ERA was not a priority in their husbands’ administrations. John F. Kennedy, while given a lot of credit for creating the President’s Commission on Women in 1961, actually did so at the behest of women’s labor activists who wanted to undermine support for the ERA. Lyndon Johnson only endorsed the ERA as “second wave” feminism was gaining momentum. However, Mrs. Johnson did not express support for the ERA until much later.
Congress passes the ERA on Patricia Nixon’s watch
The ERA was passed by Congress and sent to the states in 1972, during Richard Nixon’s presidency. Patricia Nixon never disagreed with her husband publicly. However, she did advocate for the Equal Rights Amendment privately and she also reached out to the National Women’s Political Caucus to communicate her, and the administration’s, support for women’s rights.
Betty Ford sprints with ERA baton
Patricia Nixon’s ERA advocacy was cut short by President Nixon’s resignation in August 1974. Her successor, Betty Ford, announced early in her tenure that she would dedicate her term as first lady to the ERA’s ratification. By this time, the ERA was mired in controversy. Thirty-one of the necessary 38 states had ratified. Yet, by 1974, ERA opposition was well organized, led by Phyllis Schlafly and her STOP ERA organization. The ERA’s ratifications stalled and two states—Nebraska and Tennessee—had rescinded their ratifications of the federal ERA.
On August 10, 1975, CBS broadcast Morley Safer’s interview with Betty Ford on 60 Minutes. This interview was designed to introduce the new first lady to the American public. She surprised many by her full-throated endorsement of the ERA and abortion rights and by refusing to condemn her teen daughter if she was having an affair. The resulting public backlash deterred her from participating in many ERA rallies and events. Eventually, Mrs. Ford actively advocated for the ERA through public appearances and by soliciting endorsements from her living predecessors and from Vice President Nelson Rockefeller. She also personally lobbied legislators in states considering ratification. In 1975 alone, she talked with legislators in Illinois, Oklahoma, Indiana, Arizona, Missouri, Florida, and Nevada. At the same time, Ford’s advocacy efforts were complicated by growing opposition to the ERA within the Republican Party, many of whom were receptive to the arguments made by Schlafly’s STOP ERA. Ultimately, the only state that ratified the ERA while Mrs. Ford was first lady was North Dakota in 1975.
Rosalynn Carter stepped into the role of first lady directly from being the first lady of Georgia. As Georgia’s first lady, Carter supported the ERA and advocated, unsuccessfully, for Georgia’s ratification. Furthermore, Mrs. Carter understood that the radical, outspoken feminism popular in the northeast would not play well in Georgia, even among feminists. Thus, she opposed asking Gloria Steinem to speak at a Georgia rally. This led then-Governor Carter to make the erroneous statement that Mrs. Carter opposed the ERA — not just Ms. Steinem’s appearance. Later, as first lady of the U.S., Rosalynn Carter’s primary project was mental health advocacy. However, she did get personally involved in the Indiana ratification debate in 1977. Indiana was the last state to ratify the ERA before its seven-year time limit for ratification ran out in 1979. Congress extended the deadline for another three years in 1979. However, no additional states ratified before the extension expired in 1982.
The ERA stalls in the 1980s
Ronald Reagan’s nomination and election in 1980 signaled the ascension of the religious right and social conservatives in the Republican Party. It was also the year that the Republican Party dropped its support for the ERA from its platform, replacing it with a general statement about women’s rights. Neither President Reagan nor First Lady Nancy Reagan actively advocated on behalf of the ERA. When the extension expired in 1982, both ERA advocates and opponents believed the ERA had been defeated and they turned their attention to other issues.
Interestingly, the change in the Republican Party’s position on the ERA in 1980 put Barbara Bush, then second lady, in a difficult spot. She supported both the ERA and abortion rights, in opposition to the Reagan and Bush administrations’ positions. However, as the wife of the vice president and eventually president, Bush refused to state her opinion on public affairs, stating that she was not a candidate for public office. When pressed, Bush stated her support for equal rights generally.
In 1988, four living former first ladies — Lady Bird Johnson, Patricia Nixon, Betty Ford, and Rosalynn Carter — hosted a conference entitled “Women and the Constitution: A Bicentennial Perspective.” The attendees reminisced about the ERA fight and concluded that it was worthwhile, if unsuccessful.
In 1988, four living former first ladies — Lady Bird Johnson, Patricia Nixon, Betty Ford, and Rosalynn Carter — hosted a conference entitled “Women and the Constitution: A Bicentennial Perspective.” The attendees reminisced about the ERA fight and concluded that it was worthwhile, if unsuccessful.
Hillary Clinton’s rise and the ERA revisited
Hillary Rodham Clinton, who became first lady in 1993, was an outspoken feminist and successful career woman. The Clintons’ proposed “co-presidency” and Ms. Clinton’s role in crafting the administration’s health care reform plan were extremely controversial. Many Americans were uncomfortable with a first lady who took such a visibly active role in policy making — even though many other first ladies served as presidential advisors, albeit mostly behind the scenes. Clinton did not advocate for the ERA since it was considered defeated. However, her speech at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 was notable for her oft-repeated phrase “human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights, once and for all.” Hillary Clinton also cosponsored the ERA as a U.S. Senator between 2001 and 2009. Finally, Clinton became the first woman nominated for president by a major party in 2016. That year the Democratic Platform included a plank supporting the ERA.
The ERA revived
In 1992, a seemingly unrelated event breathed new life into the ERA: the ratification of the 27th Amendment. This amendment, which deals with congressional pay, first introduced by James Madison in 1790, took 202 years to be ratified. This led three legal scholars to argue in the William and Mary Journal of Women and the Law in 1997 that the ERA’s time limit was unconstitutional, that there is no time limit to ratify Constitutional amendments, and rescissions are invalid. Thus, the “Three State Strategy” was born, which asserted that only three additional states were required to ratify the ERA. Advocates went to work again.
Between 2017 and 2020, Nevada, Illinois, and Virginia ratified the ERA, bringing the total to the 38 states needed. This led to a flurry of congressional resolutions, a court case, and a Trump administration directive stating that the late ratifications were invalid because the ERA’s time limit had expired.
While there is no record of First Ladies Laura Bush, Michelle Obama, Melania Trump, or Dr. Jill Biden making any statements regarding the ERA or the Three State Strategy, Laura Bush did receive the “Alice [Paul] Award” from the Sewall-Belmont House in 2012 for her advocacy on behalf of women’s rights. Similarly, in 2017, Dr. Biden and then-former Vice President Joe Biden launched the Biden Foundation, which is dedicated to equal rights.
The ERA is currently in limbo. In 2021, the Biden administration issued an additional memorandum stating that Congress could repeal the time limit and direct the National Archivist to accept the ERA. In 2023, the Senate attempted to pass such a resolution, which failed. Currently, Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) is soliciting signatures on a discharge petition to bring a similar resolution to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. As of September 28, 2023, this petition had 196 signatures; 218 are needed to bring the ERA to the floor for a vote.
