Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Senator Kyrsten Sinema (I–Ariz.) announced she will not seek reelection, Accenture CEO Julie Sweet announces acquisition to bring AI skills trainings to clients’ workplaces, and the fight for the ERA moves to TikTok. Have a wonderful Wednesday!
– TikTok on the ERA. The Equal Rights Amendment was first introduced in Congress 100 years ago. A half-century later, after the ERA’s passage in 1972, feminist activists campaigned to get states to ratify the constitutional amendment guaranteeing equal treatment for women.
Carolyn Maloney, the former New York congresswoman, remembers how they fought to get support for the ERA. “We were working with memos and press conferences and meetings,” she recalls.
Another 50 years later, the campaign to ratify the ERA continues, and it’s taking place in a new space: TikTok. The ad agency Ogilvy teamed up with the ERA Coalition, an organization Maloney now chairs after leaving office in early 2023. Called “Shout for Equality,” the campaign asks people to record themselves shouting via voice memo and turns those “shouts” into signatures on a petition demanding the ratification of the ERA. Thirty-eight states, the required three-fourths, have ratified the amendment, but five have voted to rescind their ratifications as the amendment has become less popular among Republican legislatures. Well past the initial deadline for ratification, activists are now pushing Congress to override that deadline.
The campaign was designed with TikTok and its viral sounds in mind; on the platform, users often post videos with the same clip of music or sound to participate in a trend. “Getting this amendment passed is going to impact the generations that are existing and living on their phones and on social,” says Ogilvy California chief creative officer Lisa Bright. “So it was really important for us to create something that was going to meet them where they were.” The campaign will also run on other social platforms, including Instagram.
Ogilvy has developed some other campaigns for women’s rights, including a 2020 ERA campaign and the 2022 effort “WomanCorp,” which argued that “the American government protects corporations’ constitutional rights more than the rights of human women.”
Since the 2020 ERA campaign, TikTok has only become a more influential source of information and connection. The average U.S. user is an adult, not a teen, the platform says. In the U.S., the TikTok user base skews female. Making the ERA go viral would be a feat on the platform that’s recently boosted the popularity of content about “trad wives,” short for “traditional wives” who cook and clean for their husbands.
Maloney says that falling short of ratifying the ERA is her “biggest regret” from her 30 years in Congress. “A lot of them don’t realize how it affects them,” she says of young adults and the ERA today. She hopes that encouraging people to scream loud for the ERA earns new, younger supporters for the 100-year-old amendment.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
The Broadsheet is Fortune’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Today’s edition was curated by Joseph Abrams. Subscribe here.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Super duper Tuesday. Nikki Haley is expected to suspend her campaign on Wednesday after losing 14 of 15 Republican primaries to Donald Trump on Tuesday; Haley won Vermont’s contest, making her the first Republican woman to ever win a state primary. Also on Tuesday, Rep. Katie Porter (D–Calif.) was shut out of the November runoff for Dianne Feinstein’s former Senate seat after opponent Rep. Adam Schiff (D–Calif.) spent millions to elevate Republican Steve Garvey. The November general election will feature the top two vote-getters, Schiff and Garvey. Rep. Porter, who came in third, and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), who came in fourth, will leave Congress in January. Washington Post
- AI EDU. Accenture CEO Julie Sweet announced that the professional services firm is buying learning platform Udacity and investing $1 billion in a new AI-powered training suite for clients’ employees. Sweet told Fortune that the acquisition will help Accenture meet the booming demand for training and upskilling, especially with regards to gen AI. Fortune
- Synema's final show. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I–Ariz.) announced that she will not run for reelection in November in an X video posted on Tuesday that criticized Americans who "choose to retreat farther to their partisan corners." Sinema, who left the Democratic Party in 2022 and frequently stymied progressives’ top causes, says she’s leaving the Senate because "I choose civility, understanding, listening, working together to get stuff done." CBS News
- Calling the shots. Vodafone CEO Margherita Della Valle is moving fast to sell parts of the overextended telecommunications business and narrow its workforce just one year into the role. Della Valle has spent nearly half of her life rising the ranks of the company and now must prove that selling its Spanish and Italian business will satisfy investors and boost Vodafone’s returns. Financial Times
- Progress lost. Women in Latin America are gearing up for pro-choice protests on International Women's Day this Friday at a time when anti-abortion rhetoric in the U.S. is fueling similar efforts in Latin American countries. Activists say that recently-passed abortion rights laws in countries like Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina are under threat as Argentinian President Javier Milei seeks to re-criminalize abortion and states in Mexico and Colombia block women from accessing the legal abortions they were promised. Axios
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: OTC Markets Group appointed Julia Sears to its board of directors. Jessica Mackler is the new president of EMILYs List, succeeding Laphonza Butler, who left the role when she was appointed to a California Senate seat.
ON MY RADAR
How Louisiana has become a microcosm of the abortion access fight Time
Women feel guilty about getting enough sleep–and it’s a public health emergency Fortune
Justice Amy Coney Barrett stakes out distinctive stance in Trump case The New York Times
PARTING WORDS
"The hardest thing is being a mom and...not feeling like, I have nothing for myself. That's every mother—not just me."
— Actress Kirsten Dunst after taking a two-year break from acting to give birth and raise her son James
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