The purpose of this study was to explore politicians’ attitudes toward the Equal Rights Amendment. It was hypothesized that certain social, background and political variables would influence the politicians’ attitudes toward ratification or rejection of the Equal Rights Amendment. Data were collected from legislators and former legislators from the states of West Virginia and Virginia. Approximately 70.2 percent of the 195 delegates and former delegates responded to the survey. The findings indicated that the social, background and political variables under investigation were not related to politicians’ attitudes toward the Equal Rights Amendment. Further, lobbying efforts in both states were generally ineffective. The general lack of relationships among the variables toward the Equal Rights Amendment was considered to be influenced by the traditional one-party political control of the state of Virginia. / Master of Science

published_or_final_version / Criminology / Master / Master of Social Sciences