The Equal Rights Amendment: A promise unfulfilled

"Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex." That's all the Equal Rights Amendment says. No mention even of women . Just 24 words. Fighting words written by Alice Paul, a driving force behind the passage, finally, in 1920 of the vote for women. Paul first submitted a version of the ERA to Congress in 1923. The fight to get it passed took nearly 50 years, until 1972. Getting it ratified by three-quarters of the states was supposed to be the easy part. "Why? Because it was based on justice and common sense and fairness," said 87-year-old feminist writer Letty Cottin Pogrebin. One of the founders of Ms. Magazine, Pogrebin is a titan of the women's movement. She said she believed, "by 1975, the country will wake up and we'll have equality." Marchers in Springfield, Ill., demonstrate for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, May 16, 1976. AP Photo Wrong! The opposition was ferocious. Its loudest voice: conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly, who said in 1983, "Women do have ambition and work hard, but most women choose to apply those energies to building their family." Congress set a time limit for the ratification process, until 1982. But the yes votes stalled at 35, three short of the 38 states needed. Even without the ERA, change has come. Exhibit A: Letty Cottin Pogrebin, at the beginning of her career in the early 1960s, compared to her granddaughter, Maya, and daughter, Robin. …