1974

Equal Rights Amendment Bracelet

The fight for women's rights has a long history in Allen County. The Allen County Women's Rights Association, one of the earliest women's organizations in Fort Wayne, was formed in March 1871. The organization existed for three short but active years, during which time the society and its friends listened to such prominent universal suffrage advocates as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

Other women's suffrage groups followed, with the Twelfth District Women's Suffrage Association in 1887 and the Women's Equal Suffrage League in 1912. Full right of suffrage was granted to the women of Indiana by the legislature of 1917. Two years later, the United States Congress passed the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote, and in 1920 the amendment was ratified.

More recently, the Equal Rights Amendment was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution guaranteeing women equal rights. In 1974, the League of Women Voters launched a nationwide campaign selling bracelets to raise funds for the 1975 ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. This nickel-silver band with the letters ERA in center was sold by the local League of Women Voters in support of the amendment. Originally proposed to Congress by Alice Paul in 1923, supporters of the amendment were never able to attain votes from thirty-eight states required for ratification and the amendment was never added to the Constitution.