How close are we to ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment? The question hangs anew over Congress. And the courts. 

A distinguished panel of officials, experts, and ERA activists assesses the decades-long effort to enact what would be the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, enshrining the principle of gender equality in our founding charter. Virginia became the 38th state to approve it in January, meeting the threshold for ratification, but the 1982 deadline set by Congress was long passed. The House voted in February to repeal the deadline. That measure has gone nowhere in the Senate. 

Further, five state have acted to rescind their ratification? Can they do that? 

Erica Benson, the campaign coordinator for Project 28 MO, a Kansas City-area organization working for ERA ratification, moderates the discussion in conjunction with this week's observance of Women’s Equality Day. This month also marks the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote.

On the panel: 

• Julie Chi-hye Suk, a professor of sociology, political science, and liberal studies at the City University of New York Graduate Center and author of We the Women: The Unstoppable Mothers of the Equal Rights Amendment 
• Carol Jenkins, co-president and CEO of the ERA Coalition/Fund for Women’s Equality 
• Carrie N. Baker, professor of the study of women and gender at Smith College  
• Nevada state Sen. Pat Spearman, who was instrumental in the state’s 2017 ratification of the ERA  
• Kate Kelly, an attorney specializing in international human rights litigation and host of the podcast Ordinary Equality 
• Marco Gonzalez, Texas State Director for Generation Ratify, the national youth-led movement to ratify the ERA 

The online event is co-presented by the Women’s Equality Coalition of Greater Kansas City.