The ERA has been popular from the start, though support in polls (while still a majority) declined as the 1982 deadline neared. Support today is closer to the highs at the early stage of the ratification process in the 1970s. In the current poll, two-thirds (67%) believe ratifying the ERA is important to ensure that men and women are considered equal in the Constitution. About three in ten (29%) think an amendment is not necessary.

However, Republicans aren’t at all convinced that the deadline should be extended, as the House, voting mostly along party lines, did. But there are sizable gender gaps among Republicans: a majority (59%) of GOP women support the amendment, compared to about half (47%) of Republican men. Republican men reject allowing states to ratify after the deadline (42% to 36%) while GOP women would allow late ratification (42% to 33%). There is much less of a difference between Democratic men and women: both genders support the ERA and would allow late ratification.