 McCarty was also involved in the campaign to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment in Indiana in 1977, along with Indiana Women's Political Caucus, the Greater Indianapolis Women's Political Caucus, and others.Although McCarty supported passage of the ERA, she was unsure of its effectiveness in securing equal rights in the private sector.According to McCarty, "All it would do was give us equal rights as far as the government was concerned but it wouldn’t affect private employment at all, I thought.