History Commons^™

“Kill That Snake": Anti-Era Women And The Battle Over The Equal Rights Amendment In Louisiana, 1972-1982, Yvonne Brown

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) ratification battle in Louisiana and the women who helped defeat it. The study emphasizes the role of anti-ERA women in the amendment’s defeat, but the views of pro-ERA women are also featured. Historical evidence shows that ERA advocates underestimated anti-ERA women. They dismissed anti-ERA women as either ignorant of their oppression or as pawns of male interests. This study challenges the idea that female ERA opponents in Louisiana behaved irrationally, worked against their own interests, or acted at the behest of men. Organized women led in opposition to the ERA in Louisiana. …