So I got out to the car and my husband was opening the door for me.

And I said, you know, Rick, I'm a feminist.

In fact, I'm a radical feminist because I'm an English teacher you know I know that radical means at the roots and I knew that at the roots of my soul I'd been changed that night that I would never be the same. I could never return.

You must remember that when the Constitution was written, that women were regarded as property.

The struggle for an Equal Rights Amendment traces back to 1923 when feminist Alice Paul

wrote the words that became ERA.

Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States

or any state on account of sex.

So as we launched today, remember, forward together, backward, never.

If you could change one thing about the Constitution, what would it be?

I would add an equal rights amendment to you.

Yesterday, all these years later, Nice back to people. Yes, ERA! When do we want us? No!

Yesterday, all these years later, Virginia's legislature voted to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment,

making it the 38th state to do so.

That means three-quarters of all states have ratified, as the Constitution requires.

Hi, I'm Kate Kelly. all states have ratified as the Constitution requires.

Hi, I'm Kate Kelly, human rights attorney, feminist, and advocate for the Equal Rights Amendment,

and this is ordinary equality.

We talked last episode about why the Equal Rights Amendment is important in real concrete terms. And we're not the only ones who think that.

Even in the 1970s, the majority of Americans believed in it, the majority of people in both major political parties.

Today, we're talking about how that high approval level led to the amendment's victorious passage.

Well, almost.

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