Former president Jimmy Carter is known for winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, and for being a tireless worker for Habitat for Humanity. When people think of his presidency, they remember long gas lines and the Iran hostage crisis, and they tend to forget his considerable accomplishments. He protected over a million acres of land in Alaska (yes, that was his fault), overhauled the civil service system, created the Department of Education, gave the Panama Canal back to Panama, created a national energy policy, tried to pass national health insurance, mediated peace between Israel and Egypt, and ratified the Salt II treaty.

He also advocated for and signed the Equal Rights Amendment. The ERA, though it was never ratified, was a major issue during Carter's presidency, but it has been purged from his biography by a number of sources. There is no mention of it in Carter's biography on the official White House website, no mention of it in his biography on the Encyclopedia Americana website, no mention of it on the Nobel Prize website, and--most surprising--no mention of it in the presidential timeline for the PBS show, "American Experience."

Why? It is hard to imagine that Carter's people would ask to have it omitted, but it is mystifying that it would fail to appear in so many biographies. What a sad commentary about the women's movement. Jimmy Carter's administration occurred at the peak of the Second Wave of feminism. The ERA was a landmark piece of civil rights legislation for a president who was committed to the enforcement of civil rights. People--especially young women--who read these biographies may wind up with no clue about the struggle American women waged in the 70's, and about President Carter's role in trying to win that struggle.