ERA Countdown: ERA Countdown

Illinois approaches a vote

Each day when the Illinois legislature is in session, women costumed as suffragists in blouses and long skirts hold a silent vigil in the state capitol. The women, like many others, are waiting for the legislators to vote on the Equal Rights Amendment. ERA will die if not approved by 38 states before March 22,1979, and Illinois, the one Northern industrial state yet to pass the measure, could be the 36th. Ratification there would keep alive the amendment's slim chance of approval before the deadline. Even ERA supporters concede that defeat...

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