The only way to make gender equality permanent nationwide is through the recognition and implementation of the Equal Rights Amendment as the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which is why it’s the ultimate goal of ERA Coalition Forward. Their current initiative, Equal Voice | Equal Vote and It’s Our ERA: Claim the 28th Amendment, kicks off the effort by educating and engaging the public ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, showing how each of us can seize this powerful opportunity to vote for equal rights and finally see the 28th Amendment enshrined in the Constitution, making sex and gender equality the law of the land.
Equal Voice | Equal Vote and It’s Our ERA will soon be coming to community spaces and college campuses nationwide. The initiative will inform voters of the current status of the ERA, show how to get involved in advancing its recognition, and make the case for why the midterm elections matter for sex and gender equality.
This initiative activates students, women, and community leaders—particularly women of color and others historically excluded from political power—through storytelling, civic education, content creation, and voter participation programming to mobilize the next generation of equality leaders.
Program activities include community-based events in partnership with local organizations and cultural spaces, intentionally reaching people where they are, as well as on-campus activations such as panel discussions, storytelling gatherings, tabling, and voter education events. These campaigns will engage individuals who aren’t often formally identified as leaders but who—through their actions, aspirations, values, and willingness to take risks—are already leading within their communities and need support and guidance to realize their potential.
To ensure meaningful reach and sustainability, ERA Coalition Forward is partnering with coalition organizations that maintain active presences on college campuses and in communities, including Feminist Generation, the Ruth Project, Feminist Majority, and others. These collaborations will expand networks, deepen on-the-ground engagement, and strengthen long-term organizing capacity well beyond individual events.
Young people in the Equal Voice | Equal Vote campaign will be encouraged to engage at these events and create inspirational videos, blog posts, and visual storytelling that share—in their own words—what gender equality means in their lives. Through the power of authentic storytelling, these narratives will serve as a compelling call to action, motivating broader participation in voting, civic leadership, and the movement for gender equality.
Complementing this work, ERA Coalition Forward is launching a collaboration with FEMINIST, the largest social-first media platform for women, girls, and gender-expansive people, reaching more than 6.5 million followers worldwide. On the 28th of every month, this partnership will spotlight two voices from different generations, united by a shared purpose: affirming that the ERA is the 28th Amendment and inspiring others to join the call for its full recognition.
ERA Coalition Forward is also collaborating with the Driving the Vote for Equality Tour—inspired by the historic 10,000-mile cross-country drive of 1916 that helped build momentum for the suffrage movement and the eventual ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920. The tour is a living demonstration of how advocacy and collective action can create change.
Together, these collaborations mobilize the movement—while the lasting impact is built through ongoing student leadership, community partnership, and continued civic engagement nationwide, uplifting those too often left out of our constitutional promise of equality.
College campuses and community spaces serve as powerful hubs of civic energy and movement-building, enabling the ERA message—and the voices of participants—to resonate across diverse regions of the country. People care deeply about the issues that shape their lives, and gender equality is at the top of that list. Once written into the U.S. Constitution as the 28th Amendment, the ERA would establish equality as a lawful right that benefits us all. ERA Coalition Forward helps people make that connection: your vote is a direct path to making equal rights the law of the land.
Voting rights are being restricted. Efforts to block and ban women’s access to essential reproductive healthcare are on the table. Protections for domestic violence survivors are being rolled back. Early childhood education, the ability to compete in sports, the right to serve in all military positions — all under threat. Science, education, and free speech in the workplace are being silenced. These aren’t distant political debates. They are real issues affecting real people every single day. And they all have one thing in common: they can be best fought at the ballot box.
Equality opponents don’t want young people and women to vote, and they are taking unprecedented steps to suppress those votes. But when we show up, equality wins. Virginia’s ratification proved it after voters elected a record number of pro-ERA legislators in 2019, making Virginia the 38th and final state to ratify the ERA. When you change who is in the room, you change what is possible.
Throughout the spring and summer of 2026, ERA Coalition Forward is finalizing college campus and community partners, developing a storytelling curriculum and inclusive voter registration resources, and recruiting and training student ambassadors and community organizers. Soon, the Equal Voice | Equal Vote and It’s Our ERA will launch national communications and act on their outreach strategy.
The initiative has already launched its first event—at Georgetown University in partnership with Feminist Generation Georgetown—bringing together the two campaigns — It’s Our Era: Claim the 28th Amendment and Equal Voice | Equal Vote — to energize students around the midterm elections and the ERA. The response exceeded expectations. Students stamped 40 constitutions with “28th Amendment” within the first hour, engaged deeply with ERA history and legal status, recorded video testimonials, and left energized and ready to act. Want to bring this to more campuses and communities? Go to www.eracoaltion .com/donate to make a donation.
In fall, 2026, Equal Voice | Equal Vote activates nationally with storytelling events on campuses and in communities to capture and amplify the voices of women and historically excluded voices and build lasting equality networks. The League of Women Voters is joining the effort and bringing their Vote411 tools to help ensure every voter is registered and prepared to vote.
Get involved. Share your story. Vote—and help get others to the polls. The ERA will not be won by waiting. It will be won by the people who show up, speak up, and bring others with them. Add your voice to the movement and make your vote a vote for equal rights. It’s not just our right, it’s our responsibility.
Ready to make constitutional equality a reality? Your investment in Equal Voice | Equal Vote and It’s Our ERA puts organizers on campuses, storytellers in communities, and voters at the polls. Join us to help make sure that the next generation doesn’t just inherit the promise of gender equality. They claim it.