Virginia Maloney & Other City Council Pols Rally for ERA

A slew of City Council Members, led by Virginia Maloney of District 4 on the East Side, rallied on March 10 for the long-deferred enshrinement of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) into the United States Constitution.

They gathered in City Hall Park, not far from the fountain, holding “ERA Yes” signs. Maloney’s mother Carolyn—who represented Manhattan in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2023—also made an appearance in order to talk about her own ongoing national advocacy tour on the topic.

The ERA has been a cornerstone of the reproductive rights and broader feminist movement for decades. The rallying politicians, most of whom were women, notably held the event in the midst of International Women’s Month.

Though first conceived of as an amendment in the 1920s, the formal process of ratification—which seeks to strengthen discrimination protections on the basis of sex—didn’t gather momentum until the election year of 1972, when it received the necessary two-thirds vote in Congress and was sent to the states.

New York State was among 22 states that ratified the ERA that year, with 13 more states ratifying it between 1973 and 1977. However, within the decade, five states—Kentucky, South Dakota, Idaho, Nebraska, and Tennessee—passed legislation to “rescind” their previous ratification. North Dakota did the same in 2021.

Various legal institutions, such as the American Bar Association, do not recognize the right to rescind an amendment. However, other scholars have pointed out that the U.S. Constitution does not explicitly comment on the matter one way or the other, teeing up an ongoing legal dispute.

Despite being technically ratified by the required threshold of 38 states as of 2020 (a number that included the many “rescinders”), the ERA is not recognized as the 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution. Why? The National Archives, which would formally enshrine the amendment, cites a missed deadline of 1982—when only 35 states had ratified it.

Another legal dispute on this matter has since emerged between proponents of the amendment and the Justice Department, the latter of which has indicated the belief that the ratification process would need to start over again in Congress, in what would be a possibly difficult process.

Meanwhile, a state-level adaptation of the ERA became part of New York’s constitution in 2024, after passing in a ballot measure vote. Championed by State Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright, who represents the Upper East Side, it expanded discrimination protections to categories such as sexual orientation and gender identity.

Council Member Maloney began her remarks at the rally with a series of pointed questions: “How can we call ourselves a forward-thinking democracy if equality is still not guaranteed in our Constitution? Why is America a stubborn holdout, when three-quarters of the world’s nations have already constitutionally guaranteed equality between men and women?”

“Only an Equal Rights Amendment will ensure that women’s rights–to healthcare, to financial security, to safety, to equal legal protection—are not temporary policies, but permanent constitutional guarantees!” she added.

Maloney noted that she was introducing a resolution pushing for federal recognition of the ERA. She also unveiled that the original author of the amendment, Alice Paul, was an ancestor of hers.

Council Speaker Julie Menin stopped by to lend her support, saying it was “shameful” the ERA had yet to be ratified. “We are a women-led City Council. We are calling on Congress to do this. It is more than high time for this to happen,” she said. “Our daughters have less rights than in our grandmother’s generation, and that is just a fact.”

During her time at the mic, Council Member Gale Brewer drew attention to the legal debate between the National Archives and proponents of the amendment, such as herself. She made clear that she strongly disagreed with the procedural argument that the ERA failed: “It is time to pass it. It’s time to say: ‘It’s passed. Done!’”

Finally, Carolyn Maloney herself—who was nursing a broken arm—made an entrance. “The ERA is never more important than it is now,” she said. “The only way to protect people, or women especially, is to put them in the Constitution—where they so rightfully belong.”

For those seeking to further interact with the elder Maloney on her national “ERA Road Tour,” they’ll be advised to look out for the Golden Flyer II. It’s a bright-yellow restoration of a 1916 Saxon motor that two legendary suffragettes of yore, Alice Burke and Nell Richardson, barnstormed the nation in during a similar 10,000 mile tour in 1916.