After more than a generation of advances for women’s rights, the only right guaranteed to women in the US Constitution is the right to vote, a right passed over 100 years ago. It is imperative that the Senate votes to extend the deadline for state-ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, or the ERA, so that our Constitution explicitly provides equal protections under the law regardless of sex.

The proposed amendment reads “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex,” guaranteeing equal rights to women in every extent of the law, something the Constitution lacks currently.

The ERA was passed in 1972 and was sent to the states for ratification, needing 38 states to ratify the Constitutional Amendment. Unfortunately, the ERA was 3 states short of ratification by the deadline in 1982. Since that deadline, three states (Nevada, Illinois, and Virginia) have ratified the ERA, bringing the number of states that ratified from 35 to the necessary 38.

In order for the ERA to become a Constitutional Amendment, the Senate needs to vote to extend the deadline for ERA ratification to the present, just as the House of Representatives did earlier this year.