Earlier this week, the Nevada State Legislature ratified the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution—just in time for the birthday festivities, too: today marks the 38th anniversary of the Amendment’s original Congressional deadline for ratification.

That makes for a great headline, but it’s a big deal. The Constitution does not currently guarantee equal rights to women. The ERA was first introduced to Congress in 1923 to rectify that—but it wasn’t passed on a federal level until 1972. Within a year, 30 states ratified the amendment, and at that time it seemed certain that it would be ratified by the necessary three-fourths of State legislatures before the 1979 deadline imposed by Congress.

Then Phyllis Schlafly came along.  

A staunch conservative activist and advocate, Schlafly convinced legions of American housewives that equal rights for women would actually be a bad thing. Conservative women mobilized against the ratification, claiming that the amendment would work against women in cases of alimony and child custody. And it worked: by 1977, the ratification process had ground to a halt, and by 1979 the ERA had been ratified by only 35 states—3 states short of the number needed. Congress voted to extend the deadline to 1982, but it didn’t matter: no additional states ratified the amendment before the new deadline, and by July of that year the ERA was D.O.A.

But the fight waged on: legislators have reintroduced the ERA in every single Congressional session since 1982, and 1990s feminist activism gave birth to a “three-state strategy” focused on urging Congress to rescind the deadline for the amendment’s ratification. According to this strategy, striking down the deadline would retroactively reinstate the Amendment’s still-in-consideration status, and as such only three more states would need to ratify the ERA in order for it to become part of the Constitution. (Since 1973, five states have voted to rescind ratification—but, since there is considerable debate as to whether State Legislatures have the authority to do so, it is uncertain whether or not this even matters.)

Nevada’s ratification of the ERA makes it the 36th state to do so—and other states (including North Carolina) are currently pushing to ratify it as well. Is there actually a chance that the ERA could become part of the Constitution mid-Trump Administration? We can dare to dream!

Want to get involved? Urge your state lawmakers to ratify the ERA.

1. Click here to see the list of states which have not yet ratified the ERA.
2. If your state is on the list, click here to track down contact information for your state legislators—then call and tell them to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.