More than 50 years ago, Sally Bulkley Pancrazio was on the political frontlines in Springfield fighting for Illinois to become one of 38 states needed to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.
First proposed in 1923, shortly after women won the right to vote, the ERA aimed to add to the Constitution that "equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex."
It then took 50 years for the House and Senate to both approve the ERA, which then sent the matter back to the states, where at least three-fourths would have to ratify the amendment before it could officially become part of the Constitution.
That, in turn, wouldn't happen until 2020, when Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the amendment. Along the way there have been disputes aplenty, from cultural disputes famously led by Phyllis Schlafly against the ERA to legal disputes over deadlines to ratify the amendment to the most recent slew of arguments spurred by a last-minute statement made by former president Joe Biden: In the last hours of his presidency, Biden declared the ERA to be the "law of the land."
What could have felt like a victory for ERA advocates like Pancrazio didn't. In an interview with WGLT, Pancrazio said the statement was "confusing" and a "slap in the face," since it was not certified by the National Archivist who, in a December statement, said the ERA could "not be certified as part of the Constitution due to established legal, judicial, and procedural decisions."
This isn't the first uphill battle ERA advocates have fought, as Pancrazio says in the following interview that has been edited for clarity.
Pancrazio: [In 1972,] I happened to chair the Springfield Women's Political Caucus. It was bipartisan, but it was primarily made of women who were working in state government jobs. ... And of course, that was the issue: Getting the Equal Rights Amendment on the agenda. We thought since we were in the land of Lincoln, of course it was going to sail through. It took 46 years.
WGLT: That just defied your expectations at the time, I have to imagine.
Pancrazio: It was a dissonance I could never understand. One of the major fights was with a labor person named Tommy Hanahan who was out of Chicago and called us "braless, brainless broads.'" And he insulted our husbands' masculinities for allowing us to be there asking for equal rights. It was a humbling experience for those of us who thought it would just sail by, given this was the land of Lincoln.
WGLT: Did it really feel like, when you were doing this, that it was groundbreaking, defining feminist work at the time?
Pancrazio: Yes, and there were various factions of women's groups. The Women's Political Caucus was both Republicans and Democrats. The National Organization of Women group was a much younger group and primarily women just either coming out of college or in college and they chained themselves to the Capitol and spilled pig blood whereas older ones were trying to be polite about asking for our rights as opposed to demanding it. I think it radicalized many of us and we all had a story to tell at that time. It was more focused on equal pay for equal work and public daycare and opportunities within state agencies at that time ... but equal pay for equal work was the war cry. When I left Springfield to come back to Illinois State University, my heart was broken ... when we lost. We lost so meanly. The second time around, we did it differently.
WGLT: There were two fights for the ERA in Illinois, not that it wasn't ongoing, but it didn't stop in the 1970s or 1980s — there was a second push for it.
Pancrazio: It was in 2016, I believe, Nevada... they were organized. They had a majority female legislature and under the direction of Rev. Dr. Pat Spearmen, they ratified the ERA. Well, then came Kay Moss. Kay and I knew each other because we worked together at Illinois State. She said, "Sally, we've got to do something." I said, "I can't. I've been through those wars. I'm burned out. I can't stand being called those awful names." She said we've got to do this. And she organized it in such a way that I was convinced this was our chance. The McLean County Democratic Women and the McLean County League of Women Voters, [Delta Sigma Theta], the YWCA and others... formed a coalition of McLean County to pass the Equal Rights Amendment. We held our first rally over at the Hyatt on the second floor. A few judges came and other women lawyers. Because it was the first group to take action after Nevada, we got a lot of attention. The Chicago Bar Association found out about it and the Illinois Bar Association and Rep. Lou Lang. The momentum began to build. It was amazing how this county was credited for kicking off the second wave of the Equal Rights Amendment.
WGLT: I have to imagine that felt somewhat gratifying, having gone through it the first time and having been so demoralized from that to seeing people really electrified and dedicated to passing it and being more tactical about it.
Pancrazio: Rather than going to the yes votes, we went to the "maybe" votes now and again. It had to be bipartisan. You probably know that I am a precinct committeeperson for a Democratic precinct, but you have to work if you want bipartisanship. At that time, [Republican] Dan Brady was in [House] leadership and Jason Barickman was our Republican state senator. Both had consistently voted against the Equal Rights Amendment. Consistently. And we talked to them, got signatures. We were able to get their positive votes and that made all the difference.
WGLT: So a few days ago, there's a sort of a declaration sent out that the ERA is now the "law of the land." That came right as [Biden's] presidency was coming to a close. I don't know how it felt to see that on your end.
Pancrazio: It's not to say that President Biden didn't have a lot on his to-do list ... but nevertheless he did promise as part of his election that he would take leadership on this. He did it the last day he was in office. It was devastating and confusing because it's not published. The only way it can be used in law as a case is essentially if it's published in the Federal Register. And he bypassed that, he did not direct her [the National Archivist] to do that. He didn't do what we wanted him to do, which was to take action.
WGLT: Do you think the fight now is the same fight that it was back in the 1970s that you were involved in, or is it somehow a different fight?
Pancrazio: It's the same fight, but over expanded issues. The whole issue of bodily autonomy and reproductive rights was separated in the early first wave and more women are working now than then. There really was a war between working women with children and middle class women and poor women and also black and white women. That's why I think in McLean County it was really important that a black sorority was part of our coalition.
WGLT: Where do [you] go from here?
Pancrazio: We're licking our wounds and trying to say, 'OK. We've got it.' We have to reorganize and come up with another strategy. I'm hopeful. But I said I wouldn't die until it got passed, so I guess I'm going to have to live a little longer.
