From the beginning of its diplomatic history in promoting the nation internationally, U.S. leaders and diplomats have hailed their country’s ideals and achievements of a democracy founded upon ideas of equality among its citizenry.
Yet after 250 years of USA history beginning with “all men are created equal” announced in the Declaration of Independence of 1776, women’s equality has still not been added to the U.S. Constitution that became law in 1789. Some say that everyone’s equality can now be implied by the eighteenth-century generic wording of “All Men,” thus including women.
The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), after more than a century now from its first official proposal immediately after women were finally allowed to vote from 1920, has now been ratified by enough states to be the next amendment to the U.S. Constitution. By the time of USA’s “Semiquincentennial” (250th) birthday celebrations July 2026, however, the ERA has not been officially certified as the 28th amendment.
Still today there are only twenty-seven U.S. constitutional amendments. Advocates continue to urge that the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) be added to the Constitution.
Yes, it was declared by former President Biden, just three days before he left office January 2025, for the ERA to be “the law of the land,” finally after its introduction in the U.S. Congress in 1923. Biden’s White House office, however, acknowledged the president did not take the final required action of ordering official certification by the U.S. Archivist.
Likewise, the succeeding President Trump administration has not ordered ERA certification. Many today may respond that too much else of concern has happened the past year and a half since Biden’s belated, still non-binding statement, to worry about the Equal Rights Amendment.
Certainly, there have been advances for equality made slowly over the nation’s history, many throughout our various lifetimes, but still many rights are missing, ignored, or blocked. Over the last half-century the USA often led globally in taking steps toward women’s equality. Today worldwide women’s equality is often promoted on the surface only.
Fourteen nations have in recent years signed onto what’s called Feminist Foreign Policy to be the guiding foundation for their diplomatic initiatives. Now at the United Nations in its 81st year with preparations to elect its new leader, the 10th Secretary General, there’s publicized movement to elect a woman for the first time, though with no assurance it will happen.
Women’s representation in national politics since late 20th century and even more now in the 21st century has an impact on the nation’s image. Since the most recent wave of feminism gained world attention from the 1960s, some countries have elected female leaders.
In contrast, the USA throughout 250 years of nationhood has never yet elected a woman president as head of state. In the last American election, across the political spectrum, appeared a predominant, clear, but often unacknowledged determination by a majority of voters (and the millions not voting) that a woman could not do the job of president.
This anti-female-leadership bias in both major parties evidenced publicly and through the secrecy of the ballot box is widely believed to have contributed greatly to the election of the current president.
For countering these national trends, would the ERA as a certified constitutional amendment make any difference? Certainly, though it would be naïve to believe that it would yet change people’s minds for secret voting in ballot booths. The statement of women’s equality would be there as powerful legal language confronting courts, including especially the U.S. Supreme Court.
The impact of an Equal Rights Amendment in the U.S. Constitution would also go far beyond the country’s borders. A nation’s approach toward equality of all its citizens affects its international image and thence the effectiveness of its diplomacy.
Now upon this 250th anniversary of the USA nation’s birth, many of us believe it’s finally time for the ERA, constitutional equal rights for women, for all citizens. The world is watching.