Equal Rights Amendment Defeated After Schlafly's Decade-Long Campaign, Establishing Conservative Movement Model

The Equal Rights Amendment expires on June 30, 1982, after failing to achieve ratification by 38 states, marking a stunning victory for Phyllis Schlafly’s decade-long STOP ERA campaign and establishing the template for modern conservative movement organizing. Despite 30 of the necessary 38 states ratifying the amendment by 1973, and despite Congress extending the original 1978 deadline to 1982, only 35 states ultimately ratified the ERA—three states short of the required total. Illinois’s decision not to ratify the amendment in 1982 effectively kills the effort. Many historians credit the efforts of STOP ERA for halting what seemed like an easy ratification process in the early 1970s. Schlafly’s attack proves devastatingly effective through multiple tactics: organizing grassroots opposition in key battleground states (Florida, Missouri, Illinois, Oklahoma, and North Carolina), mobilizing religious conservatives across denominational lines, using dramatic tactics (Stop-ERA advocates bake apple pies for the Illinois legislature and hang ‘Don’t draft me’ signs on baby girls), and framing the ERA as a threat to traditional family structures and women’s privileges. On the evening of June 30, 1982, over a thousand guests enter the Shoreham Hotel to mark ’the expiration of the Equal Rights Amendment’ at a celebration hosted by Phyllis Schlafly, called ’the sweetheart of the silent majority.’ Ronald Reagan sends a congratulatory telegram to the party. The ERA defeat demonstrates that a well-organized grassroots campaign focused on social issues and ‘family values’ can overcome establishment support, elite media backing, and overwhelming initial momentum—a lesson that shapes conservative strategy for decades. Following the ERA’s defeat, Schlafly converts STOP ERA’s infrastructure into Eagle Forum, institutionalizing her network as a permanent pro-family, traditionalist organization.