The full episode transcript and episode notes are live now on Ms. magazine. Listen and subscribe to Looking Back, Moving Forward wherever you get your podcasts!

The Equal Rights Amendment was sent to the states for ratification the same year Ms. made its newsstand debut. It took nearly 50 years to bring the ERA to a successful vote in the Senate and House; and today, more than 50 years since, the fight to enshrine it in the Constitution goes on.

The ERA would expand and protect many of the gains feminists have made in the last 50-plus years, acting as a “safety net” for women’s rights. The need for constitutional equality has only become more clear in the wake of local, state, and national efforts to roll back women’s progress, regressive SCOTUS rulings and a judicial system stacked with originalists, and a political landscape where our rights hinge on every election’s outcome.

The fifth and final episode of Looking Back, Moving Forward illustrates the power of the ERA’s promise, and how the fight for constitutional equality is connected to the issues we’ve explored in our previous installments—women’s political power, reproductive freedom, economic justice and the struggle to end gender-based violence. Experts and advocates share what they’ve learned in 50-plus years of ERA activism, and how they’re fighting forward for full equality at the state and national level.

Featured in this episode:

• Pat Spearman, cleric, veteran and former Nevada state Senator who led efforts to ratify the federal ERA in 2016 and add an ERA to the state’s constitution. Follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
• Eleanor Smeal, founder and president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, publisher of Ms. and three-time president of the National Organization for Women. Follow FMF on Instagram, Facebook and Bluesky and read Ellie’s work in Ms.
• Carol Moseley Braun, who made history as the first Black woman elected to the Senate, the first Black democratic senator, the first woman elected to represent Illinois in the Senate, the first woman on the Senate Finance Committee and the first woman and African American person ever appointed to serve as the United States Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa. Follow her on Facebook.
• Katherine Spillar, executive editor of Ms. and former president of Los Angeles NOW. Read her work in Ms. 
• Ting Ting Cheng, director of the ERA Project, now a part of NYU Law’s Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center. Follow the ERA Project on Instagram and Twitter and read Ting Ting’s work in Ms.
• And your host, Carmen Rios, feminist superstar and Ms. consulting editor. Follow her on Twitter, Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky and read her work in Ms.