Kentucky Commission on Women panel reviews Equal Rights Amendment ahead of Women’s Equality Day

The Kentucky Commission on Women hosted a virtual "Conversations with Commissioners" session focused on the Equal Rights Amendment and the approaching Women’s Equality Day. Patty Minter, a historian at Western Kentucky University and a member of the commission, reviewed the ERA’s origins, legal obstacles and the recent push to complete ratification, while Lieutenant Governor Jacqueline Coleman highlighted ongoing pay inequity in Kentucky.

Minter traced the ERA to suffrage-era activists, saying the amendment was first drafted by Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman in 1923 and reintroduced to Congress in 1971. She read the amendment’s core language as recorded in the session: "equality of rights under the law shall not be abridged or denied or abridged by The United States or by any state on account of ***." Minter emphasized that Congress approved the ERA in 1972 and the measure then moved to the states for ratification.

The session placed the ERA’s stalled path in historical context: Minter said that by 1972 thirty-five states had ratified the amendment but an organized "stop ERA" movement, using what she described as scare tactics and misinformation, slowed momentum. She recounted that in Kentucky in 1978 the legislature held a rescission vote and that Lieutenant Governor Thelma Stovall vetoed the rescission, leaving Kentucky recorded as a state that ratified the amendment.

On the topic of public concerns, Minter addressed two frequent objections she said were used by opponents. She rejected the claim that the ERA would prevent pregnancy-related protections such as maternity leave, stating it "absolutely doesn't" remove those protections. She also acknowledged that opponents warned the amendment could lead to women being subject to the draft, saying, "this would mean your daughters could be drafted, which is true, by the way," a fact she presented as an accurate but often weaponized talking point.

Lieutenant Governor Jacqueline Coleman underscored the economic argument for action. Pointing to the commission’s recent report, Coleman said that "women in Kentucky who enter the workforce make 79¢ for every dollar that men make," framing pay equity as a tangible pocketbook issue that could resonate across political lines.

Minter described the current legal and procedural obstacle: while three additional states ratified the ERA between 2017 and 2020 (Nevada, Illinois and Virginia), those ratifications occurred after the congressional deadline attached to the original 1972 resolution, and the Archivist of the United States declined to "enroll" the amendment. She urged civic engagement as a path forward, recommending that people contact their members of Congress and senators and press for renewed congressional action to advance the amendment.

The session also highlighted local observances: Heather Dearing of the commission promoted two Women’s Equality Day events — at Liberty Hall Historic Site in Frankfort and a program hosted by the Office for Women at Atherton High School in Louisville — and noted available childcare and interpretation services.

Minter closed with an explicit call to action: she asked listeners to make calls and send emails on Women’s Equality Day to urge congressional and federal action on protections for pregnancy, insurance discrimination and pay equity. The commission’s next Conversations with Commissioners session will focus on domestic violence awareness in October; the commission also provided contact information for follow-up and ways to subscribe to its updates.

Quotes used in this article are taken from the public virtual session produced by the Kentucky Commission on Women.