In the 1970s, Florida lawmakers voted against ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). The amendment proposed that “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account of sex.” Floridians’ response to the ERA mirrored the sharp national divide over the Amendment’s message on gender equality.

ERA demonstrators marching on Apalachee Parkway in Tallahassee

Florida Memory

• Photographs, Equal Rights Amendments in Florida
• Video, "We, the Women" (Florida Women's Conference, 1977
• Video, ERA Rally, 1970s
• Selected Documents, Equal Rights Amendments in Florida
• Floridiana Article, Letters to Governor Bob Graham
• Floridiana Article, Women’s Equality Day: The First Ladies of Florida Politics
• Floridiana Article, Women’s Equality Day
• Floridiana Article, August 26: Women’s Equality Day
• Floridiana Article, Roxcy Bolton: A Force for Equality
• Floridiana Article, Florida Remembers Janet Reno
• Floridiana Article, Florida and the Ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment

State Archives of Florida

• Finding Aids, A Guide to Women's History Collection
  
• Archival Collection, S79: Records of the Governor's Commission on the Status of Women, 1974-1985
• Archival Collection, S 850: Governor Bob Graham Issue Correspondence, 1979-84, especially Boxes 14-25.

State Library of Florida

• Bibliography, Women's History in Florida

Other Online Resources

• University of Florida Digital Collections, Nancy Breeze, "Equal Rights Amendment Protest"

Published Sources

• Joan S. Carver, "The Equal Rights Amendment and the Florida Legislature," Florida Historical Quarterly 60, no. 4 (Apr. 1982), 455-481.