Why We Lost the Era

by Jane J. Mansbridge

Traces the history of the Equal Rights Amendment, looks at the Stop ERA movement, and discusses the political aspects of ERA's failure to pass

Genres: Feminism, History, Nonfiction, Politics, American History, Read For School, Law

278 pages, Hardcover

First published September 15, 1986

About the author

Jane Jebb Mansbridge (born November 19, 1939) is an American political scientist, the Charles F. Adams Professor of Political Leadership and Democratic Values in the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Reviews

[Laura Santoski]

Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.
Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.

These words, seemingly innocuous, constituted the core principles of the Equal Rights Amendment. However, 10 years after the amendment had been passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification, the amendment expired after having been ratified by 35 states - three short of the number necessary to make it a constitutional amendment.

Mansbridge has written a very lucid and engaging examination of why the ERA, on the surface an unobjectionable amendment, ultimately was not passed. Although the book is written from the feminist perspective and is clearly slanted in that direction, Mansbridge does examine the motivations behind both the pro- and anti-ERA forces. A very interesting and quick read.

[Miriam]

3.5

[Allison Kronlein]

I’d give it 3.5 if I could. She had some really interesting and engaging perspectives, but ultimately her writing just wasn’t compelling to me on the whole. Some points felt overemphasized, under explained, or just assumptive. She also speculates a lot which I guess is the point of the book, but I think I was looking for more history, which I did get some of. Overall interesting but it took me awhile to wade through.

[Gina]

The writing was not as compelling as it could have been, but combines the experience of someone who worked on ERA so had a personal feeling for it with a fairly detailed legal and organizational critique of the different factors in place.

It is kind of a trip now to see how many factors that were areas of concern are in place now anyway, but there are certainly still limits to equal protection.

[Heather]

This is a good book examining the Equal Rights Amendment and why it failed. It focuses on all the different opposition groups as well as the pro-ERA groups. It does have a slight bias but it is still worth the read for anyone who is interested in women's studies or the topic of the ERA.