The Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution proposed by Congress in 1972 never became law. It did not win ratification by a sufficient number of states, and this failure, some three decades ago, was a huge setback for women’s lib.

With or without gender protection from the Constitution, women have forged ahead in many arenas, breaking the corporate glass ceiling in some cases, and seeing their pay catch up, although rarely exceed, the compensation made to men for performing the same work.

Still, when a legislature dominated by men repeatedly turns down the ERA, as happened in the Virginia General Assembly a generation ago, one wonders if our elected representatives are really putting themselves in the shoes of all their constituents. Specifically, the shoes of their female constituents.

The Virginia Senate this month took up the ERA again—it also did so in 2011 and 2012—and voted to support its ratification. “E...