After 250 years of USA history beginning with “all men are created equal” in the Declaration of Independence of 1776, women’s equality is still not included as an amendment to the U.S. Constitution in effect since 1789.

The time is now for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to be added to the Constitution. This Women’s History Month and during primary voting preceding this year’s November elections, it’s important we speak out again in support of equal rights for all.

Some people will say, “We thought the ERA was fully ratified, already added as 28^th Amendment of the Constitution.” It’s ratified by enough states, but not certified. Still today there are only 27 amendments.

Yes, it was declared by former President Biden, just three days before he left office January 2025, to be “the law of the land,” finally after its introduction in the U.S. Congress in 1923. Biden’s White House, however, acknowledged he had not ordered official certification by the U.S. Archivist.

Many today may respond that too much else of concern has happened the past year since Biden’s belated, still non-binding statement, to worry about the ERA. Others say, dismissively, everyone’s equality is implied by “All Men,” that the wording is generic, including women.

Certainly, there have been advances made slowly over the nation’s history, many throughout our various lifetimes, but still many rights for equality under the law are missing, ignored, or blocked.

Over the last half-century the U.S. often led globally in some efforts to gain women’s equality. Today worldwide women’s, all gender equality is urged. Now at the United Nations in its 81^st year with preparations to elect its tenth leader, the UN Secretary General, there’s publicized momentum to elect a woman for the first time, though with no assurance it will happen.

Yet in the USA, despite many other nations’ having elected at least one female head of state, no woman has ever been elected president, with diminished prospects of happening anytime soon. In the last American election, across the political spectrum, appeared a predominant, unacknowledged determination by a majority of voters (and those not voting) that a woman could not do the job of president.

Most media, failing to give public credence to this underlying bias, publicized explanations that a woman’s election was lost for economic concerns or racism. Those issues were definitely prevalent, but widespread conviction a woman cannot serve as U.S. commander in chief, reflecting condescension, contempt, or, worse, misogyny, was the deep, underlying reason.

That view already underlay the Biden administration’s refusal to allow the first U.S. female vice-president to be seen as natural successor and the president’s decision to run again until forced to quit.

Daily now this nation witnesses anti-female biases and actions. Media’s use of the generic term “pedophilia” for all children in current big-news scandals disguises the fact the degenerate actions exposed are predominantly against girls, underage women. Many tycoons, other influencers, publicly, proudly boast macho convictions and actions, and some bought US nationality to dominate the world from an American base where women can be abused often without justice. Politics remains controlled by males, despite some women managing to get elected.

For countering these national trends, would the ERA as a certified constitutional amendment make any difference? Yes, at least it would be there as powerful legal language confronting courts, including especially the U.S. Supreme Court of which a majority recently acknowledged the fundamental legal power of the U.S. Constitution. The ERA has been ratified by enough states to certify it as the 28^th Amendment.

Still some states, such as North Carolina where I live, have not ratified the ERA, despite more than 100 years of efforts since women obtained the right to vote and began slowly to be elected to political offices. I know personally how hard my mother as a North Carolina state legislator and many others worked earlier to have the ERA ratified but to no avail. Such states need to join.

Today, in this Women’s History Month, it’s vital for U.S. citizens to be certain their winning candidates in this year’s elections support the still hanging ERA. Now finally is the time for constitutional equal rights for women, all citizens.

Elizabeth “Liz” Colton, Ph.D., author, Emmy Award winning journalist who worked in all news media globally, U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer, UN international civil servant, later U.S. Foreign Service Officer, now teaches diplomacy worldwide for UNITAR and partner international universities. She serves on the North Carolina statewide board of ERA-NC Alliance.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Opinion: USA’s 250 anniversary is time for ERA, equality for women