American Political Science Association Gladys M. Kammerer Award, 1987.
NMAH copy purchased with funds from the S. Dillon Ripley Endowment.
Contents:
Why we lost the ERA -- A very brief history -- Rights versus substance -- The amendment process -- 59 cents -- The court catches up -- The ERA and the war powers clauses -- A decision by accretion -- Of husbands and toilets -- Ideology and activism -- Reaction in the legislature -- Organizing in Illinois : a case study -- A movement or a sect? -- Requiescat in pace
Summary:
The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which would have guaranteed women the same equal rights as men, passed Congress with an overwhelming majority in 1972. During the following ten years, the public repeatedly endorsed it in opinion surveys. Yet, for all the favor it enjoyed in the abstract, the ERA was never able to muster concrete support in enough states to become the law of the land. In this provocative and controversial book, the author explains why, as she argues that the ERA failed because it did not result in substantive changes in the position of women.
