The biggest ambition was to alter the U.S. Constitution itself. A proposed Equal Rights Amendment held, quite simply, that “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” Between 1972 and 1977, it was ratified by 35 of the 38 states necessary to amend the Constitution. Americans backed the ERA in polls, but their support was impressionistic and vague, broad but not deep. When state legislatures dragged their feet and five of them even rescinded their approval, no one particularly seemed to care. Despite a
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