Do some states have state ERAs or other guarantees of equal rights on the basis of sex?
Only a federal Equal Rights Amendment can provide U.S. citizens with the highest and broadest level of legal protection against sex discrimination. However, 22 states Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming provide in their constitutions either inclusive or partial guarantees of equal rights on the basis of sex. (As a point of historical comparison: by the time the 19th Amendment guaranteeing womens right to vote was added to the Constitution in 1920, one-quarter of the states had enacted state-level guarantees of that right.) States guarantee equal rights on the basis of sex in various ways. Some (e.g., Utah, Wyoming) entered the Union in the 1890s with constitutions that affirm equal rights for male and female citizens. Some (e.g., Colorado, Hawaii) amended their constitutions in the 1970s wi
