ERA Charm Bracelet
date: label: date made
content: 1972-1973
name: label: associated institution
content: National Woman's Party
label: associated person
content: Paul, Alice
notes: label: Description
content: This is the second of four bracelets displaying charms for the states that voted to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).
label: Description
content: The 19th amendment giving women the right to vote was ratified on August 18, 1920. Women had won the vote but not full equality, so Alice Paul and the National Woman’s Party took up the fight for equal rights. Believing that the more she understood about law the more useful she would be, Paul went back to school and earned three law degrees. In 1923 she drafted the text of the Equal Rights Amendment and worked for women’s equality in national and international forums for the rest of her career. In 1972 when Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment designed to guarantee protection against sexual discrimination for women under the law and sent it to the states for ratification, Paul began a set of charm bracelets. She added a charm engraved with the date that each state ratified the amendment. She had started her fourth bracelet when she suffered a stroke in 1974. An Ohio state charm dated 2/7/74 was the last one that she added. Alice Paul died on July 9, 1977, at the age of 92. She would never know that the amendment for which she had fought so long and hard would not be ratified.
label: Description
content: This bracelet has charms representing states that had ratified the amendment after its passing. There are charms for California, Wyoming, South Dakota, Oregon, Minnesota, New Mexico, Vermont, Connecticut, and Washington.
label: Description
content: The ERA failed to meet the requisite number of state ratifications (38) by Congress’ deadline of June 30, 1982 and so was not adopted as a Constitutional amendment. It has since been reintroduced several times.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: District of Columbia
topic: label: Subject
content: Women's Suffrage
label: Subject
content: Women's Rights
label: Subject
content: Equal Rights Amendment
label: Subject
content: Voting Rights
setName: label: See more items in
content: Political History: Political History, Women's History Collection
label: See more items in
content: Government, Politics, and Reform
label: See more items in
content: Woman Suffrage
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Alice Paul Centennial Foundation, Inc
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1987.0165.040
label: catalog number
content: 1987.0165.040
label: accession number
content: 1987.0165
objectType: label: Object Name
content: bracelet, charm
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: silver (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: enamel (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: average spatial: 1 1/4 in x 6 1/2 in; 3.175 cm x 16.51 cm