National Woman's Party and the Equal Rights Amendment, 1945-1977

The years following World War II were grim ones for women's organizations. Although the National Woman's Party (NWP) managed to survive, it never managed to thrive. Great determination on the part of its members to ban gender discrimination by means of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) did not prove adequate to the task of getting the amendment through Congress. Frustration within the NWP at the continued failure of ERA turned member against member. Unable to attract replacements for those who had left the party, the NWP diminished in strength. Before it collapsed entirely, upon the death of founder Alice Paul in 1977, the NWP introduced a new generation of feminists to ERA.