Virginia could soon cast the deciding vote on the Equal Rights Amendment. It was first proposed almost a hundred years ago and came close to becoming the law of the land in the early 1970s. And when Congress refused to ratify it, it inspired a woman named Pat Brown to work for women’s rights. Brown lead the Women’s Resource Center of the New River Valley for 33 years. She’s stepping down this month.
“When I came out of college, the Congress had just passed the equal rights amendment finally, after a hundred years. And it was going out to the States for ratification.” That was in 1972 and Pat Brown says she wasn’t very political back then.
“But then when the equal rights amendment came out, it just changed everything and all of a sudden it was a like, of course women are equal in value to men. What is the deal here? And it was just such a shock to me that it didn't get ratified.”
And that feeling would change the course of her life. In 1986 Brown became the executive director of the Women’s Resource Center of the NRV, which, in addition to fighting for women’s rights, offers a host of services from emergency shelter to crisis counseling and legal help.
Jessica Taylor is an oral historian in Virginia Tech's Department of History.“And what's interesting about this is it's a story not just of awakening specifically to the equal rights amendment, but also to staying awake to how the needs of Virginians in this area have changed.”
She points out, “The Equal Rights Amendment was introduced by Alice Paul in 1923.” It nearly passed in 1972. When it failed the momentum seemed lost, but not the movement, not by a long shot. It energized millions, including Brown. Taylor says, “Pat Brown has actually, in the course of her lifetime seen, the equal rights amendment rise fall and rise again.”
And even as she steps down from her post at the Women’s Center, she is passing the mantle to a new executive director, Laura Beth Weaver. And now, just as the goal that inspired her career is once again, front and center, she’ll be watching as Virginia’s legislature convenes in January, where party leadership expects the ERA to pass once again. Then it’s up to congress and the courts for the final decision.
