Keeping Up With the Librarians

On March 22nd, 1972, the U.S. Senate passed the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), sending it to states for ratification. This amendment, guaranteeing equal legal rights regardless of sex, was a pivotal moment in the fight for gender equality. Proposed in 1923, the ERA faced strong opposition for nearly five decades before gaining momentum in the 1960s and 70s. Despite falling short of ratification, the ERA's passage significantly impacted the conversation on gender equality, and its influence continues today. The ERA served as a powerful reminder that the fight for women's rights, ignited by the suffrage movement decades earlier, was far from over. It helped fuel the rise of the modern women's movement.

Test your knowledge of the ERA with this quiz: The Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Interested in learning more? Check out these resources from the library databases:

Books

By engaging deeply with American legal and political history as well as the increasingly rich material on gender history, Gendered Citizenship: The Original Conflict over the Equal Rights Amendment, 1920-1963 illuminates the ideological contours of the original struggle over the ERA from 1920 to 1963.

Political Women: The Women's Movement, Political Institutions, the Battle for Women's Suffrage and the ERA explores this question regarding the women's movement in the U.S., asking under what conditions are Congress and the presidency responsive to the women's movement, and when will the women's movement gain access to Congress and the presidency?

In Constructive Feminism: Women's Spaces and Women's Rights in the American City, Daphne Spain examines the deliberate and unintended spatial consequences of feminism's second wave, a social movement dedicated to reconfiguring power relations between women and men.

Videos

Think the U.S. Constitution protects equal rights for women? Think again!

The Equal Rights Amendment: A Woman’s Prerogative is the untold story of the ERA. In Shirley Chisholm - Equal Rights For Women, Shirley Chisholm, the first African American Woman elected to Congress, addresses the U.S. House of Representatives to argue in support of a controversial women’s rights bill: the Equal Rights Amendment.

Equal Means Equal is an unflinching look at how women are treated in the United States today. By following both real-life stories and precedent-setting legal cases, director Kamala Lopez discovers how outdated and discriminatory attitudes inform and influence seemingly disparate issues, from workplace matters to domestic violence, rape & sexual assault to the foster care system, the healthcare system, and the legal system.

Carrie Woodhouse is the library's project manager and oversees many of the library's day-to-day processes. She enjoys taking walks and regularly visits a murder of crows in her neighborhood, who now recognize her when she's out and about.

On this day in history, March 8th, we celebrate International Women's Day! In 1857, a group of fearless women in New York initiated a movement, bravely standing up for their rights and laying the groundwork for what would become the women's labor movement. Fast forward to 1911, and the world officially recognizes March 8th as International Women's Day, a global celebration of women's achievements and a call for gender equality. Each year, International Women's Day is celebrated with a specific theme chosen to highlight various issues affecting women globally. Themes have ranged from "Equality for Women is Progress for All" to "Choose to Challenge." This day serves as a reminder of the ongoing struggle for women's rights and the progress that has been made worldwide. International Women's Day aims to promote gender equality, celebrate women's accomplishments, and raise awareness about women's rights issues around the world.

To test your knowledge of influential women, historical milestones, and more, check out this quiz, The Ultimate Women's Day Trivia Quiz.

Interested in learning more? Explore the following resources from the library databases:

Books

Fighting Chance: The Struggle Over Woman Suffrage and Black Suffrage in Reconstruction America reveals how woman suffrage and black suffrage came to a bitter falling-out in the midst of Reconstruction, when Elizabeth Cady Stanton opposed the 15th Amendment because it omitted the voting rights of women.

Read about how politics have helped transform, and have been transformed by, American public debate and the evolution of the positions of both parties on women's rights over the past five decades in The Politics of Women's Rights: Parties, Positions, and Change.

Through a mix of qualitative and quantitative evidence, The Woman Suffrage Movement in America: A Reassessment explains the success and failures of efforts for woman suffrage provisions as the result of successful and failed coalitional politics between the suffrage movement and important constituencies.

Videos

In Black Women in America & Their Fight for Voting Rights, learn about the role Black women played during the 19th and 20th centuries in the struggle for universal suffrage, and their impact on getting the Fifteenth and Nineteenth Amendments passed.

How could America claim to be the world’s greatest democracy, but deny the right to vote to women for so long? With an introduction by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, One Woman, One Vote documents the events that culminated in the passing of the 19th Amendment.

Join Ann Curry as two women search for friends and colleagues who forged a path for equal rights. In The Fight for Women's Rights, one of the first female commercial pilots wants to thank her mentor, and an advocate hopes to find the woman who inspired her to join a movement.

Carrie Woodhouse is the library's project manager and oversees many of the library's day-to-day processes. She enjoys taking walks and regularly visits a murder of crows in her neighborhood, who now recognize her when she's out and about.