James Strickland, Ph.D., Associate Professor at the Florida State University Department of Political Science and Constitutional Liberties Branch Head at the FSU Institute for Governance and Civics, authored a paper titled “Who Stopped the Equal Rights Amendment?” in State Politics & Policy Quarterly, a Cambridge University Press journal, on September 12, 2025. The following summary was written by Miguel Rodriguez-Diaz (B.S. Marketing ‘28).
FSU Political Science Associate Professor Dr. James Strickland authored “Who Stopped the Equal Rights Amendment?” The article investigates which groups and lobbying efforts influenced state legislators as they voted on the proposed constitutional amendment during the 1970s and early 1980s.
Using historical lobbying records and legislative voting data, Dr. Strickland argues that lobbying activity played a significant role in shaping legislators’ votes on the Equal Rights Amendment. His research found that the number of ERA lobbyists active in a state was associated with legislators’ votes on the amendment, while the presence of insurance lobbyists showed little measurable effect. The findings also revealed a partisan divide: lobbying activity appeared to influence Republican legislators more strongly, while Democratic legislators generally supported the ERA regardless of lobbying pressure. Overall, however, the effects of lobbying were likely not large enough on their own to stop the amendment from passing.
“This is the first study that measures the effect of lobbyists on roll-call votes on the ERA among state legislators,” said Dr. Strickland. “And it helps to address conflicting expectations in both the scholarly and popular presses.”
In the United States, constitutional amendments must be approved by state legislatures or conventions before becoming law. In 1972, Congress proposed the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which aimed to prohibit the government from treating men and women differently under the law, but the amendment ultimately failed to gain enough state support before its 1982 deadline. Since then, scholars and activists have debated what caused the ERA’s defeat, with some blaming conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly and others pointing to business interests such as insurance companies.
To conduct the study, Dr. Strickland gathered lobbyist registration records in person from state archives and libraries across the country, compiling data from as many states and years as possible in which the ERA was considered. These records captured both pro-ERA and anti-ERA lobbying efforts and covered more than 96 percent of legislative roll-call votes on the amendment from 1973 and later. He then compared those records with legislators’ individual voting behavior using statistical analyses designed to measure the relationship between lobbying activity and support for the ERA.
The study holds particular relevance for Florida. Of all the states Dr. Strickland examined, Florida’s legislature saw the highest number of ERA lobbyists, including both pro-amendment and opposition efforts, with totals exceeding those of every other state where data was available. The state senate and state house each voted on the amendment four times between 1973 and 1982.
“During 1977 and 1978, for example, more than 200 individuals registered to lobby for or against the ERA,” said Dr. Strickland. “Many of these individual lobbyists, including lawmakers, are likely still involved in state government or politics.”
“Future researchers should work to document other mobilization efforts regarding the Equal Rights Amendment and other proposed amendments,” Strickland says. “There is no database, for example, of protest efforts. Other proposed amendments might have also spurred lobbying or protests in the states.”
The research was shared publicly by Cambridge University Press and the author through social media platforms, including BlueSky and X.
To learn more about Dr. Strickland and his work, visit: https://cosspp.fsu.edu/polisci/faculty/james-strickland/.
Figure 4.
Predicted probabilities of voting for ERA by party and ERA lobbyists.
Strickland, J. M. (2025). Who stopped the Equal Rights Amendment? State Politics & Policy Quarterly, 25(4), 439–463. https://doi.org/10.1017/spq.2025.10006