RATIFIED
RATIFIED tracks the evolution of the feminist movement and its opposition, culminating in the hopeful passage of the ERA. A timeline of archival footage and interviews compliment verite scenes from the tense political battle to make Virginia the 38th state to ratify, showing how amid racial and economic divisions, women’s rights - and bodies - are used as playing cards for political gamesmanship. We look at the many times since the Constitution was written that arguments against women’s equality seem to forget Black women completely. But while the fight for the ERA had stalled out in the early eighties, it was Black women who renewed the efforts for its passage, supported by a new multi-racial coalition of activists building a more intersectional movement for gender equality.
We follow women of all stripes: from stay-at-home mom and grassroots organizer Kati Hornung, to Virginia state delegate and Virginia Military Institute grad Jennifer Carroll Foy, to actress/activist Patricia Arquette, to Virginia’s first Black congresswoman in history Jennifer McClellan, providing unseen perspective on the struggle and resilience of the women who continue the fight to enshrine gender equality into the constitution.
CHARACTERS AND COMMUNITY
Our team was on the ground for three years in Virginia while a bi-partisan, multi-racial, multi-generational group of politicians and activists pushed Virginia to become the 38th and final state to ratify the ERA, making it the first time a Southern state has ever voluntarily ratified a civil rights Amendment. (You read that right.)
Jennifer Caroll Foy
Jennifer was one of the first women to graduate from Virginia Military Institute (VMI). After graduation, Jennifer went on to receive a master’s degree from Virginia State University and a law degree from the Thomas Jefferson School of Law. Jennifer started her career as a magistrate judge. But she quickly saw how people in her courtroom were being treated differently based on their race, economic status, or zip code. Jennifer became a public defender to help give a voice to the voiceless — children, people suffering from addiction, those experiencing houselessness, those with mental illness, and the poor.
She ran for office while pregnant with her twin boys and flipped a historically red district blue. In the House of Delegates, she led the charge to clean up toxic coal ash ponds across the Commonwealth and was a part of the successful push to expand Medicaid to over 500,000 Virginians. During the 2020 General Assembly, Jennifer was the chief sponsor of the ratification bill and led the charge from inside the Virginia House to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment in Virginia.
Kati Hornung
Kati Hornung currently leads VoteEquality, a non-partisan, grassroots effort promoting equal rights for all Americans. Kati described herself as “just a mom,” and joined the movement at the behest of her son Kal, who in 2017, at 11 years old was incensed to learn the Equal Rights Amendment was not part of the U.S. Constitution. Kati decided to follow her kids' interest and got involved in the movement so they could see more about the inner workings of government. Later, she was asked to lead Virginia’s largest grassroots effort to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. She and the VAratifyERA team toured around the state of Virginia, organized letter-writing campaigns, convinced many localities to pass resolutions of support, engaged voters, and so much more.
After Virginia's ratification and the failure to publish, she and key members of the VAratifyERA team formed VoteEquality, a national campaign to publish the 28th Amendment (Equal Rights). She also purchased an existing print shop to create employment opportunities for women re-entering the workforce.
Ting Ting Cheng
Ting Ting Cheng is Director of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) Project at Columbia Law School. Ting Ting, a civil rights attorney and activist, has spent her career advocating for marginalized communities. Previously she was a public defender and immigration attorney at Brooklyn Defender Services and litigated gender discrimination cases at Legal Momentum (formerly the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund).
Ting Ting served as the Legal Director of the Women’s March on Washington on January 21, 2017, helping to organize the largest single-day protest in US history. She was a foreign law clerk to Justice Albie Sachs and Justice Edwin Cameron at the Constitutional Court of South Africa. Ting Ting was also a Fulbright Scholar in South Africa, where she received the Amy Biehl Award.
Ting Ting serves as a narrator and legal and movement expert for RATIFIED.
Jennifer McClellan
Jennifer McClellan has served the greater Richmond, VA area in elected office for nearly twenty years. She was first elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 2005 and served in that post until she was elected to the Virginia State Senate in 2017, where she worked tirelessly to pass dozens of bills supporting gender equity, and was a key co-sponsor of the Ratification bill in Virginia. Throughout her eighteen sessions in the Virginia General Assembly, McClellan passed over 370 pieces of legislation, including landmark bills to protect and expand voting rights, combat climate change, preserve reproductive health care, and enhance workers’ protections and labor rights.
McClellan has since gone on to become Virginia’s first ever Black woman elected to the US House of Representatives, where she has joined the first ever ERA Caucus. She is also one of the 212 sponsors of H.J. 25, a bill in the House of Representatives that would remove the timeline in the preamble of the ERA and clear a path to publish the ERA in the Constitution.
Eleanor Smeal
Eleanor Smeal is an American women's rights activist. She is the president and a cofounder of the Feminist Majority Foundation (founded in 1987) and has served as president of the National Organization for Women for three terms, in addition to her work as an activist, grassroots organizer, lobbyist, and political analyst.
Smeal is a longtime supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and has campaigned for its passage since the 1970s. She has campaigned for the ERA for over fifty years. In January 2022 she led a rally outside of Lafayette Square in front of the White House exactly two years after Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the Amendment in January 2020.
In RATIFIED, Eleanor provides first hand accounts of the fight for the evolution of the movement for gender equality culminating in the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment in 1972. She was one of the most prominent activists in the 1970’s and that work continues today.
Additional Interviews
Patricia Arquette
An American actor and activist, Patricia Arquette has been a strong supporter of the ERA and equal rights. She used her 2015 Academy Award acceptance speech to advocate for gender equality. She has also attended many political events to show her support and advocate for policies that promote equality.
Carolyn Maloney
Carolyn Jane Maloney served as the U.S. representative for New York's 12th congressional district from 2013 to 2023, and for New York's 14th congressional district from 1993 to 2013. She was the first woman to represent New York City's 7th Council district (where she was the first woman to give birth while in office). She is also a sponsor for the ERA and has championed women’s rights.
Andrea Miller
Andrea Miller is the Founding Board Member of the Center for Common Ground, Executive Director of People Demanding Action, Founding President of the National Women’s Political Caucus of Virginia. Andrea is an IT and Political Director and a digital and elections strategist. She designs and administers digital phone banks and texting programs. From 2013 to 2015, she led the Progressive Round Table on Capitol Hill, bringing together members of Congress, activists, and non-profit leaders. Her expertise is in voting rights, climate, and the Equal Rights Amendment. She has successfully advocated for legislation on both the Federal and State level. In 2008 she was the Democratic nominee for the Virginia 4th Congressional district.
Dr. Kelly Burton
Kelly Burton, PhD is a political scientist, serial entrepreneur and change agent who leads with passion, purpose, and vision. Kelly holds a PhD in Political Science from Emory University and a Bachelors Degree from Clark Atlanta University, and is the author of a forthcoming book, Our Next Democracy: Race, Reckoning, and the Radical Re-imagination of our American Future. Today, she is the CEO of Black Innovation Alliance, a national coalition of 175 Black led-organizations which support greater than 500K innovators of color across the country. Kelly's work has been featured by numerous media outlets, including TechCrunch, Inc., Forbes, Fast Company, Essence Magazine, NBC News, and Marketplace (NPR). She was recently added to the Executive Board of Fast Company.
Glen Sturtevant
Glen Howard Sturtevant Jr. is an American lawyer and Republican politician, who served as a member of the Senate of Virginia from 2016 to 2020. In 2023 he became the representative for the 12th district of the Virginia State Senate. He sponsored an ERA resolution in the Virginia Senate and contributed to its ratification in Virginia.