How Phyllis Schlafly, an Anti-ERA Conservative Activist, Left an Enduring Mark on the Republican Party
Phyllis Schlafly was a political animal in a homemaker's clothing. The tireless right-wing activist enlisted countless stay-at-home mothers to fight the Equal Rights Amendment beginning in 1972, criss-crossed the country to organize her Eagle Forum publicly railed against all manner of socially progressive ideals for decades—all while claiming to be first a housewife, rearing six children with a political "hobby" on the side.
Her name is less frequently mentioned these days, but that may soon change, thanks to Cate Blanchett's searing depiction of her in Mrs. America. The miniseries traces Schlafly's rise from small-time organizer and writer to leading conservative figure—an anti-ERA canary in the coal mine for the Reagan revolution.
Here, what to know about the real Schlafly.
She showed signs of ambition from an early age.
Schlafly was born to middle-class family in St. Louis in 1924. She earned good grades at her private school—an education that she could only afford with her mother working seven days a week—and secured a spot at nearby Washington University. After earning her undergraduate degree in three years, working nights test-firing guns at a munitions factory, she went on to study at Radcliffe, securing a master's in government.
After finishing her eduction, at least for the time being, the young Schlafly set her sights on the capitol. Her goal was to find work with the federal government, but after trying and failing, she instead took a post at a conservative think tank, the American Enterprise Association (later renamed the American Enterprise Institute) in D.C.
She married Fred Schlafly, an older, wealthy lawyer, when she was 25. They welcomed their first child when Phyllis was 26; they'd go on to have five more.
Schlafly ran for congress in 1952.
Now based in Alton, Illinois, not far from St. Louis, Schlafly mounted a bid for Illinois’s 24th congressional district. She campaigned as fiercely anti-Communist, claiming that her opponent, an incumbent Democrat, had voting record that indicated "he does not realize the dangers of Communism." She went hard after President Harry Truman's—and by association, her competitor's—handling of the Korean War.
Some of the traits she'd later become known for were already on full display in this early campaign. According to Donald Critchlow's Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservatism, Schlafly identified herself as "a housewife" in her filing for the primary, painting herself as a champion of morality and Christian values.
She was also a persuasive speaker—if less of a straight shooter. The Collinsville Herald editors wrote at that time that Schlafly was "the best twister of facts who has appeared on the local political scene... during the last thirty-five years," who spoke in "half truths to her wide-eyed followers."
She was running in a heavily Democratic district, and it didn't come as a surprise when she lost by a wide margin. (She'd later run again, in 1970, and once again lose.)
Still, she remained vocal about Communism and involved in politics.
Along with her husband, Schlafly helped to found a Catholic group called Cardinal Mindszenty Foundation—an organization that counted members of the John Birch Society among its ranks—to organize against the ideology. She wrote books about foreign policy with Rear Admiral Chester Ward, and she published a pamphlet with an anti-Communist reading list titled "Inside the Communist Conspiracy," which claimed to outline how "American failure to grasp the fact that we are already engaged in a total war with the Communists."
Schlafly became a subject of national discussion through during Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential run—a hard-right campaign she wholeheartedly supported. Her self-published book, A Choice Not an Echo, a populist treatise that explicitly supported her chosen candidate, became something of a sensation, selling over three million copies—despite being panned by critics as conspiracy-minded and inaccurate. While Goldwater lost, the conservative coalition that Schlafly helped inspire would later usher in the Reagan revolution. In the words of conservative theorist Paul Weyrich, she "dressed up the conservative movement for success at a time when absolutely no one thought we could win."
"Nineteen-sixty-four was the most productive year of my life," Schlafly told the New York Times in 2006. "I was running the Illinois Federation of Republican Women; I wrote A Choice Not an Echo; I self-published it; I went to the Republican Convention, wrote a second book, The Gravediggers—now we're in September—I was giving speeches for Barry Goldwater and in November I had a baby."
Despite her accomplishments, Schlafly always chose to characterize herself as a housewife.
Even as she was traveling across the country to lobby leaders, organize her coalition, give speeches—and, at one point, simultaneously pursue a law degree—Schlafly dismissed her political career as a "hobby," a secondary pursuit to her obligations at home with her six children.
"I was never gone overnight," she later told the Times, reiterating that line of defense. "I'd drive out to give a speech, and sometimes I'd bring a nursing baby with me. There was always someone outside willing to take care of a baby rather than listen to a long lecture."
Speaking to NPR in 2011, she noted, "My husband was very supportive. I told the feminists the only person's permission I had to get was my husband's."
This was especially frustrating to feminists, who believed that Schlafly was living a liberated life while campaigning against liberation. "I used to say that if I ever had a daughter, I'd want her to grow up to be a housewife, just like Phyllis Schlafly," Karen DeCrow, former president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), quipped in the Atlantic.
She began working to defeat the ERA in 1972.
When she first heard the Equal Rights Amendment being debated in Congress, she told her biographer Carol Felsenthal, Schlafly thought of it as "something between innocuous and mildly helpful." But after a friend asked her to debate a feminist on the ERA at the end of 1971, she changed her mind.
In October of 1972, she founded STOP ERA—an acronym for "Stop Taking Our Privileges"—and became its chairwoman. She tapped into the network of women she'd built while distributing A Choice Not an Echo and her newsletter, the Phyllis Schlafly Report, and grew it substantially.
Schlafly mobilized conservative, Christian women—a group previously unengaged in politics.
The political firebrand took it upon herself to teach these women how to affect change. First with STOP ERA and then with her Eagle Forum, Schlafly coached stay-at-home moms in the art of politicking.
She described her recruits in 2006, per the Atlantic, as "housewives" who "didn’t even know where their state capital was." Schlafly instructed them in everything from how to speak to the press and run phone banks to how to dress and smile for the camera.
Her ranks grew substantially after the Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973 with Roe v. Wade—a landmark ruling that spurred a political awakening for some anti-abortion Catholic and evangelical women.
When the ERA failed to pass in the requisite number of states, many gave Schlafly credit.
With Schlafly's help, the ERA went from a largely symbolic, bipartisan piece of legislation to a political lightning rod. In 1972, the year she began her crusade, 30 states had ratified the amendment. By 1982, the ERA remained three states short of the 38 needed to enshrine it in the constitution—meaning that, despite an extension, the amendment failed to pass by the (arbitrary) deadline set by Congress.
The conservative activist persuaded like-minded Americans to join her side by trotting out a familiar lineup of "family values" arguments: the supposedly terrifying prospect of unisex bathrooms and the importance of maintaining gender roles. Schlafly convinced women that feminists hated their way of life ("I think the main goal of the feminist movement was the status degradation of the full-time homemaker," she'd later say). It also helped her cause that it was unclear if the ERA's passage would have required women to sign up for the draft (some feminist groups fought to exclude an exemption to this from the amendment), a prospect that many balked at.
She lead both from behind the scenes (growing her Eagle Forum into a national organization) and in front of the camera (publicly debating prominent feminists on the merits of the ERA).
In one particularly memorable debate, Feminist Mystique author Betty Friedan lashed out at Schlafly with an oft-cited insult. "I’d like to burn you at the stake," she said. "I consider you a traitor to your sex. I consider you an Aunt Tom." (Decades later, Schlafly would tell the Times that Friedan was "very ugly" to deal with. "I reject all her ideology," Schlafly added, "most of it based on the absurd notion that the home is a comfortable concentration camp and that the suburban housewife is oppressed by her husband and by society.")
She'd remain active in the political sphere for decades.
Schlafly published her monthly newsletter, the Phyllis Schlafly Report, for half a century. Though her personal influence and renown eventually lessened, the conservative philosophy that Schlafly championed—staunch social conservatism with a heady dose of populism—would continue to gain traction.
Before her death in 2016, Schlafly endorsed Donald Trump for president.
The lifelong activist endorsed the future president months before she passed away. At a St. Louis Trump rally, she officially threw her support behind his campaign. "I think he has the courage and the energy —you know you have to have energy for that job—in order to bring some changes," Schlafly said. "To do what the grass roots want him to do because this is a grass-roots uprising. We’ve been following the losers for so long—now we’ve got a guy who’s going to lead us to victory."
Schlafly died on September 5, 2016 at the age of 92. Trump spoke at her funeral, saying, "A movement has lost its hero. And believe me, Phyllis was there for me when it was not at all fashionable. Trust me." Shortly after she passed away, her co-authored book, The Conservative Case for Trump, was released.
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