Equal Rights Amendment Project campaigns to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the U.S. Constitution, and conducts research, writes policy briefs, and hosts various events and workshops related to the ERA.

History and Activities

Equal Rights Amendment Project was founded by Katherine Franke and Suzanne Goldberg in 2021 ¹ and is housed in Columbia University Law School’s Center for Gender and Sexuality Law. The project works to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) as the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and “serve[s] as a policy and advocacy shop for the implementation of constitutional sex equality protections.” ²

It conducts research related to the ERA such as analyzing the ERA’s impact on LGBT interests and same-sex marriage, ³ summarizing ERA protections in each state in partnership with the left-of-center Brennan Center. ⁴ It issues various policy papers, including “The Sex Equality Gap,” which explores discrepancies in access to healthcare, pay equity, and education between women of different races. ⁵ The project also analyzes the impact of various court cases through FAQ-style documents. ⁶

In 2023, the ERA Project supported Rep. Ayanna Pressley’s (D-MA) Equal Rights Amendment Caucus, joining several other left-of-center organizations such as the ACLU, AFL-CIO, Catholics for Choice, Generation Ratify, National Organization for Women, National Women’s Law Center, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and SEIU International. ⁷

Events

The ERA Project hosts various events, including the ERA Centennial Convention, held in July 2023 in Seneca Falls, New York to mark the 100^th anniversary of proposal of the Equal Rights Amendment. The project partnered with Generation Ratify, a left-of-center pro-abortion student group, for the event while the Alice Paul Institute fiscally sponsored the event. The organization also hosted “Reimagining Gender Justice” workshops leading up to the convention to “to give people a vocabulary for discussing gender justice in the law.” The ERA Project also hosted a virtual symposium in 2022 titled “The Equal Rights Amendment: A New Guarantee of Sex Equality in the U.S. Constitution.” ⁸

Leadership

The ERA Project was founded by Katherine Franke and Suzanne Goldberg. ⁹ Franke is a professor at Columbia University Law School and the director of law school’s Center for Gender and Sexuality Law. ¹⁰ As of August 2023, Goldberg, who is also a co-director of the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law, is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Strategic Operations and Outreach at the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights in the Biden Administration. ¹¹

Ting Ting Cheng is the director of the ERA Project. Before joining the project, Cheng worked at Legal Momentum, a left-of-center legal advocacy organization, as a litigator. Prior to that, she worked at the New York City Commission for Human Rights and the Brooklyn Defender Services. She also sat on the National Organizing Committee of the 2017 Women’s March on Washington. ¹²

Susan Bevin is a member of the ERA Project advisory board and sits on the boards of the University of Washington Foundation, the University of Washington Foster School of Business, Boys and Girls Club of Greenwich, and the Fraternity and Sorority Political Action Committee. She also sat on the board of Republican Majority for Choice, a pro-abortion-access group targeting Republicans. ¹³

1. “Katherine M. Franke.” Columbia Law School. May 1, 2019. https://www.law.columbia.edu/faculty/katherine-m-franke.
2. “Research & Policy.” The ERA Project at Columbia Law School. The Center for Gender and Sexuality Law. Accessed August 8, 2023. https://gender-sexuality.law.columbia.edu/content/research-policy.
3. “The Equal Rights Amendment and LGBTQ Rights, Including Marriage Equality.” Center for Gender and Sexuality Law. July 28, 2022. https://gender-sexuality.law.columbia.edu/content/equal-rights-amendment-and-lgbtq-rights-including-marriage-equality.
4. “LoGerfo-Olsen, Sadie, and Katie Hawkinson. “The State of State Equal Rights Amendments: A National Roundup.” Ms. Magazine. August 25, 2022. https://msmagazine.com/2022/08/25/state-equal-rights-amendments-era-tracker/.
5. “Policy Paper: The Sex Equality Gap.” Center for Gender and Sexuality Law. February 24, 2023. https://gender-sexuality.law.columbia.edu/content/sex-equality-gap.
6. “FAQ on the Court of Appeals Decision in Illinois v. Ferriero.” The Center for Gender and Sexuality Law. March 2, 2023. https://gender-sexuality.law.columbia.edu/content/faq-court-appeals-decision-illinois-v-ferriero.
7. Eldahshoury, Mae. “Pressley, Bush Launch First-Ever Congressional Equal Rights Amendment Caucus.” Ayanna Pressley. March 28, 2023. https://pressley.house.gov/2023/03/28/pressley-bush-launch-first-ever-congressional-equal-rights-amendment-caucus/.
8. “ERA Project Events.” The Center for Gender and Sexuality Law. Accessed August 8, 2023. https://gender-sexuality.law.columbia.edu/content/era-project-events.
9. “About Us.” The Center for Gender and Sexuality Law. Accessed August 8, 2023. https://gender-sexuality.law.columbia.edu/content/about-us.
10. “Katherine M. Franke.” Columbia Law School. May 1, 2019. https://www.law.columbia.edu/faculty/katherine-m-franke.
11. “Suzanne B. Goldberg.” LinkedIn. Accessed August 13, 2023. https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzanne-b-goldberg-4426751b.
12. “Team & Mission.” The Center for Gender and Sexuality Law. Accessed August 8, 2023. https://gender-sexuality.law.columbia.edu/content/team-mission.
13. “Team & Mission.” The Center for Gender and Sexuality Law. Accessed August 8, 2023. https://gender-sexuality.law.columbia.edu/content/team-mission.