Council Member Virginia Maloney led a rally at City Hall Park calling for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment.
Photo by Jonathan Portee
Led by Council Member Virginia Maloney, the NYC Council Women’s Caucus held a rally in City Hall Park on March 10, urging Congress to pass the Equal Rights Amendment.
The ERA, first drafted in 1923, aimed to legalize equal rights for Americans. According to the National Archives, the bill sought an end to legal distinctions between the sexes in terms of divorce, property, employment and other matters.
In 1972, Congress passed the ERA, but required the bill to meet a 38-state ratification deadline by June 30, 1982. It was not until 2020, almost four decades after the deadline and a century after its initial proposal, that the state of Virginia ratified the amendment.
The City Council rally called upon Congress to extend the deadline and allow the ERA to become the 28th amendment. Kathy Stackhouse, 75, who attended the rally, said, “I’d like to see it while I’m still alive.”
“The country wants to see this as a 28th amendment, and we will keep fighting until the time limit is removed and the ERA makes it into the Constitution,” Maloney said.
Maloney’s rally featured speeches from City Council members Gale Brewer, Crystal Hudson and Amanda Farias, who came together in support of constitutional protections against sex discrimination.
In Jan. 2025, former President Joe Biden recognized the ERA as the 28th Amendment, declaring it the “law of the land,” but the bill remained unratified as the 46th president left office. Those continuing the fight for ratification hope that Republican women can push the bill through Congress to the Resolute Desk.
“I assume that some of the Republican women also feel job discrimination, salary discrimination, ageism, all the things that this would eliminate,” Councilmember Brewer told amNY.
During President Donald Trump’s first term in office, he issued a memo stating that the ERA would no longer be pending and would not be a part of the Constitution, due to the expired deadline.
This hasn’t stopped former Congressional Representative Carolyn Maloney, Councilmember Virginia Maloney’s mother, from going across the country to lobby for the amendment’s ratification.
“We’re going across the country meeting with the elected officials,” the elderMaloney said. “We hope to gain more support right now, the legislation in Congress has every Democrat in and one Republican, we’re working on Republicans.”
But the fight for Republican support is proving difficult due to politicians like Steve Scalise, the House Majority Leader, who — according to POLITICO — believes the amendment is not about women’s rights, but rather, taxpayer funding going towards abortion.
For the former Congresswoman, this is only about women finding protection under the Constitution.
“You know, in some cases, people are aware how fragile their rights are, and really the only way to protect yourself is to place women in the Constitution where they so rightfully belong,” she said.
As the fight for ratification continues, 98 years after the ERA’s drafting, women like Stackhouse keep waiting for the day when women will finally have constitutional protection and future generations will feel protected.
“My daughter-in-law has less rights than I did,” Stachouse said.
