Twenty years ago, the Equal Rights Amendment failed to be ratified by enough states to become a constitutional amendment.
Many Americans made their views heard, both for and against the ERA, as the time of its possible ratification approached two decades ago.
The proposed amendment reads, "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex."
Some supporters took part in hunger strikes, petitions and acts of civil disobedience. English professor Lauri Coup grew up in Illinois where, at an early age, she remembers when the ERA's time limit was running out in 1982.
"I remember seeing all the signs about the ERA in people's front yards - either to pass, or not to pass," Coup said. "My mother did everything my father did, and more, so I couldn't comprehend why she wasn't given the same rights as he was.
"The unfairness of the situation weighed heavily on me, even at that age."
The failure of the ERA to be ratified took nearly 80 years, as Alice Paul, a women's suffrage leader who founded the National Woman's Party, authored the ERA in 1923.
March is Women's History Month. The ERA is very significant to history, said Julee Rosser, assistant director of the Ball State women's studies program.
"To have a true democracy, you need to have the (ERA) amendment," Rosser said.
Paul lived to help the ERA be introduced into every session of Congress between 1923 and when Congress passed it in 1972.
It was then sent to the states for ratification. Congress put a time limit of seven years for two-thirds of the states to ratify the amendment to make it a part of the Constitution.
After an extension of the original seven-year time limit, all but three of the needed 38 states had ratified the ERA when time ran out. Indiana was the last state to ratify the ERA in 1977, the same year Paul died.
Two decades later, some students don't realize the ERA failed to be ratified.
"I ask the question in class, 'Why do you think it hasn't been passed?' and the students are in shock," Rosser said, adding many students assume it had been passed.
Freshman Desirae Wilson is taking an introduction to women's studies course this semester where she learned about the ERA.
"It surprised me we had to pass a law to prove equality," Wilson said. "And then, it didn't pass."
After many years, some are beginning to believe the amendment has lost its relevance.
"I would think (the ERA's) not needed," Wilson said. "I think we can look at things that are problems and how men and women are different case by case."
According to the book "Jailed for Freedom" by Doris Stevens, some organizations are working to reach equality for women outside of an amendment, such as advocating laws for wage equality and employment opportunities for women.
"Women aren't being paid as much as men in the same position with the same qualifications," Rosser said. "In the armed services, in politics and in family life, it just trickles down.
"We have a long way to go."
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