It would be some kind of symmetry if, 100 years after American women got the vote through the 19th Amendment, they finally acquired constitutional equality through the Equal Rights Amendment.
One week into the new year, Virginia's newly Democratic legislature is expected to ratify the ERA _ the 38th state and final state required to make official the amendment that Congress passed in 1972.
But wait � there's more. Congress unusually added and extended a deadline for the states to ratify, and that expired more than 30 years ago. Democrats are ready to extend the deadline to certify the amendment, and there's buzz that Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), with an eye to shoring up GOP support from women, may be willing to do the same.
How an amendment that looked like a slam-dunk nearly 50 years ago got lobbied almost out of existence is a story Linda Coberly knows well. She chairs the Equal Rights Amendment Coalition's legal task force, and though much has changed to improve women's rights and status since then, she says the ERA is still vital, both legally and symbolically.
