About Rosie

By Molly E. Sandwell

Rosie Couture is one of those amazing humans who, once they have established a goal, will not stop until it is achieved. 

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Seventeen-year-old Rosie Couture is the executive director and co-founder of Generation Ratify, a youth-led organization whose mission is to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment and further gender equality in the United States. 

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Just what is the Equal Rights Amendment, exactly?

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As Rosie broke it down for us at the Girl’s State of the Union Address, the ERA is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution that would prohibit sex-based discrimination. 

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“That may come as a surprise to some people,” Rosie explained, “but our Constitution does not include women and queer people.” Passing this amendment, Rosie noted, “would enshrine gender equality and give women and queer people the full power of the law behind them.”

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So, here’s a little history on the ERA. In 1972, the United States Senate passed the Equal Rights Amendment, clearing the way for it to become the 28th Amendment to the Constitution. However, the ERA has still never been added to our Constitution because Congress set a deadline by which the amendment had to be ratified. Congress determined that 3/4 of the states had to ratify the ERA by 1979. And although later extended to 1982, this deadline still passed three states short of the 38 needed for ratification. 

Recently though, three states have gone on to ratify the ERA in the past five years (Nevada in 2017, Illinois in 2018, and Virginia in 2020), leading us to the 38 originally required to pass the amendment, but because the established deadline has passed, the amendment has not been added. 

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When Rosie learned about the ERA in 2019, she could not believe it wasn’t already in the Constitution. She was at first shocked, then angry. 

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This is where Generation Ratify was born. 

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Generation Ratify first launched in 2019 as a small community organization in Arlington, Virginia. They began their mission by aiming to elect pro-ERA leaders through phone and text banking, protesting outside the Capitol, informing people about the ERA, and encouraging people to go out and vote for pro-ERA majorities and candidates in the upcoming election. That upcoming election, as you may have guessed, was the 2020 election in which Virginia finally ratified the ERA. All thanks to the work of Generation Ratify and other advocacy organizations.

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Yet, Rosie’s journey with activism originally began elsewhere. Rosie first became involved with activism in the space of gun violence prevention after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, but her true call to action came when she herself endured a shooting scare at the DC Pride Celebration in 2019. 

It was then that Rosie decided, “I was going to commit myself to get involved in the fight for advancing legislation that was going to protect people regardless of their identities and be able to celebrate themselves without the fear of there being a shooting.”

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Soon after, Rosie became interested in gender equality and the ERA, realizing that these were intersectional issues that affected people here and now in her generation.

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To this day, Rosie emphasizes the need for young people to be involved in causes like the ERA and take an intersectional approach to gender equality, including those who are non-conforming, non-binary, and other gender minorities in these movements, as these populations are affected by gender equality as well. Her organization continues to fight for the ERA to finally be added to the Constitution, using their four pillars of action: education, advocacy, elections, and empowerment.

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Rosie’s advice to other girls and young women who have their own causes? 

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“Just go for it,” Rosie proclaimed, “don’t be afraid to get involved. There’s no wrong way to show up for yourself and your equality, so don’t be afraid that whatever you’re doing is wrong or you’re doing an action that’s too small. Whatever you can do, however you can do it, whenever you can do it, that’s enough and that’s awesome.” 

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Rosie went on, “Plug into groups like EveryGirl, like NOW, like Generation Ratify. Find people in your community that are organizing, make friends with them and just start going for it.” 

We couldn’t have said it any better ourselves, Rosie.

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Check out Rosie’s organization Generation Ratify for more info on the ERA and ideas on how to get involved.