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The ERA Won—At Least in the Opinion Polls

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 November 2022

Mark R. Daniels ,
Robert Darcy  and
Joseph W. Westphal
Mark R. Daniels
Affiliation:
University of Connecticut
Robert Darcy
Affiliation:
Oklahoma State University
Joseph W. Westphal
Affiliation:
Oklahoma State University
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Extract

In 1972 it appeared that the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) would be ratified quickly. Support was forthcoming from a vast array of political leaders, such as President Nixon, past presidents, governors and legislators. Both major parties made the amendment part of their platforms and did so again in 1976. An impressive list of private organizations, including the National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs, the League of Women Voters, the American Association of University Women and many labor organizations, supported the amendment. Opposition was confined to groups of limited political effectiveness, such as the John Birch Society, George Wallace's American Independent Party and the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR).

During the years immediately following congressional approval of the ERA in 1972, the American public strongly favored the amendment (see Table 1). In 1974, three Americans favored the ERA for every one who opposed it. Support for the ERA continued at a ratio of about two to one throughout the early ratification years. Support was widespread among all demographic groups. In 1975-76, the Gallup Poll found that even within groups where opposition to the ERA was strongest a majority supported ratification. Specifically, persons with low incomes favored it 53 percent to 31 percent and those living in small towns supported it 54 percent to 29 percent.

Only in 1980—eight years after the ERA was submitted to the states for ratification—did support dip down to its lowest level. This represented a second phase for the ERA—the 1980 presidential campaign-during which the amendment was transformed by candidate Ronald Reagan into a partisan issue and removed from the Republican platform.

Type
The Equal Rights Amendment: Anatomy of a Failure
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 15 , Issue 4 , Fall 1982 , pp. 578 - 584
Copyright
Copyright © The American Political Science Association 1982

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References

1 Gallup Opinion Index No. 128 (March 1976): 18 Google Scholar.

2 Boles, Janet K., The Politics of the Equal Rights Amendment (New York: Longman, 1979), 17 Google Scholar.

3 Hacker, Andrew, “ERA—RIP,” Harper's Monthly, September 1980, 10–14 Google Scholar.

4 Ibid.

5 Ibid.

6 Arrington, Theodore S. and Kyle, Patricia A., “Equal Rights Amendment Activists in North Carolina” (Paper delivered at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, San Francisco, 1975)Google Scholar.

7 Brady, David W. and Tedin, Kent L., “Ladies in Pink: Religion and Political Ideology in the Anti-ERA Movement,” Social Science Quarterly 56 (March 1976): 564–575 Google Scholar.

8 Boles, Politics of the ERA.

9 Beatty, Kathleen, “Values, Religion and Sex-Based Issue Positioning” (Paper delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Western Social Science Association, San Diego, 1981)Google Scholar.

10 Boles, , Politics of the ERA, 79 Google Scholar.

11 Beatty, “Values.”

12 Brady and Tedin, “Ladies in Pink.”

13 Ibid., 574.

14 Ibid., 572.

15 Boles, , Politics of the ERA, 136 Google Scholar.

16 “Fundamentalists” are defined as Baptists and a number of other categories of Protestants. For an operational definition, see the University of Michigan Survey Research Center's Election Study for 1976 or 1980.

17 For a discussion of the disaggregation of national survey, see Prysby, Charles, “A Note on Regional Subsamples from National Surveys,” Public Opinion Quarterly 46 (Fall 1982): 422–424 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18 The University of Michigan Survey Research Center found in 1980 that public opinion in Illinois was evenly divided on the ERA and, thus, was not skewing the results for unratified states toward support of the amendment.

19 Wohlenberg, Ernest, “Correlates of the Equal Rights Amendment Ratification,” Social Science Quarterly 60 (March 1980): 676–684 Google Scholar.

20 Boles, , Politics of the ERA. 101–102 Google Scholar.

21 Bokowski, Debrah, “State Legislator Perceptions of Public Debate on the ERA” (Paper delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Political Science Association, Denver, 1982)Google Scholar.

22 See Daniels, Mark R., Darcy, Robert and Westphal, Joseph, “State Innovativeness and the ERA: A Case of Arrested Diffusion” (Paper delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Milwaukee, 1982)Google Scholar and Boles, Janet K., “Systemic Factors Underlying Legislative Responses to Woman Suffrage and the Equal Rights Amendment,” Women & Politics 2 (Spring/Summer 1982): 5–22 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23 Bokowski, “State Legislator Perceptions.”