Phyllis Schlafly

Schlafly was born Phyllis McAlpin Stewart and was raised in St. Louis. During the Great Depression, Schlafly's father John Bruce Stewart faced long-term unemployment, beginning in 1932.[6] Her mother, Odile Stewart (née Dodge),[7] went back to work as a librarian and a school teacher to support her family.[8] Mrs. Stewart was able to keep the family afloat and maintained Phyllis in a Catholic girls' school.[9] Before her marriage, Mrs. Stewart worked as a teacher at a private girls' school in St. Louis.[10] Phyllis’ sole sibling was her younger sister, Odile Stewart (married name Mecker; 1930–2015). Phyllis attended college and graduate school at Washington University in St. Louis and Radcliffe College, respectively.

Schlafly's great-grandfather Stewart, a Presbyterian, emigrated from Scotland to New York in 1851 and moved westward through Canada before settling in Michigan.[11] Her grandfather, Andrew F. Stewart, was a master mechanic with the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway.[12] Schlafly's father was a machinist and salesman of industrial equipment, principally for Westinghouse. He was granted a patent in 1944 for a rotary engine.[13]

She attended Maryville College, but after one year, transferred to Washington University in St. Louis.[14] In 1944, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa). In 1945, she received a Master of Arts degree in government from Radcliffe College (for which the then all-male Harvard University was a coordinate institution). In Strike From Space (1965), Schlafly observed that during World War II, she worked as "a ballistics gunner and technician at the largest ammunition plant in the world". She earned a Juris Doctor degree from the Washington University School of Law in 1978.[6]

Among Schlafly's early experiences in politics was working in the successful 1946 campaign of Congressman Claude I. Bakewell.

In 1946, Schlafly became a researcher for the American Enterprise Institute and worked in the successful United States House of Representatives campaign of Republican Claude I. Bakewell.[15]

She played a major role with her husband in 1957 in writing the "American Bar Association's Report on Communist Tactics, Strategy, and Objectives." Donald T. Critchlow says it "became not only one of the most widely read documents ever produced by the ABA, it was probably the single most widely read publication of the grassroots anticommunist movement."[16]

In 1952, Schlafly ran for Congress as a Republican in the majority Democratic 24th congressional district of Illinois and lost to Charles Melvin Price by 117,408 votes (64.80%) to 63,778 (35.20%).[17] Schlafly's campaign was low-budget and promoted heavily through the local print media, and the major munitions manufacturers John M. Olin and Spencer Truman Olin, and the Texas oil billionaire H. L. Hunt.[18]

She attended her first Republican National Convention in 1952, and continued to attend each following convention.[19] As part of the Illinois delegation of the 1952 Republican convention, Schlafly endorsed U.S. Senator Robert A. Taft to be the party nominee for the presidential election.[20] At the 1960 Republican National Convention, Schlafly helped lead a revolt of "moral conservatives" who opposed Richard Nixon's stance "against segregation and discrimination."[21] Schlafly was the Republican nominee for Illinois's 24th congressional district again in 1960, losing again to Price, this time by 144,560 votes (72.22%) to 55,620 (27.79%).

She came to national attention when millions of copies of her self-published book A Choice Not an Echo were distributed in support of Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign, especially in California's hotly fought winner-take-all-delegates GOP primary.[22] In it, Schlafly denounced the Rockefeller Republicans in the Northeast, accusing them of corruption and globalism. Critics called the book a conspiracy theory about "secret kingmakers" controlling the Republican Party.[23] Schlafly had previously been a member of the John Birch Society, but quit, and later denied she had been a member because she feared her association with the organization would damage her book's reputation. By mutual agreement her books were not mentioned in the John Birch Society's magazine, and the distribution of her books by the society was handled so as to mask their involvement. The society was able to dispense 300,000 copies of A Choice Not an Echo in California prior to the June 2, 1964 GOP primary.[24] Gardiner Johnson, Republican National Committee for California, stated that the distribution of her book in California was a major factor in Goldwater's winning the nomination.[25]

In 1967, Schlafly lost a bid for the presidency of the National Federation of Republican Women against the more moderate candidate Gladys O'Donnell of California. Outgoing NFRW president and future United States Treasurer Dorothy Elston of Delaware worked against Schlafly in the campaign.[26][27]

In 1970, she ran unsuccessfully for Illinois's 23rd congressional district, losing to Democratic incumbent George E. Shipley by 91,158 votes (53.97%) to 77,762 (46.04%). She never sought public office again.

American feminists made their greatest bid for national attention at the 1977 National Women's Conference in Houston; however, historian Marjorie J. Spruill argues that the anti-feminists led by Schlafly organized a highly successful counter-conference, the Pro-Life, Pro-Family Rally, to protest the National Women's Conference and make it clear that feminists did not speak for them. At their rally at the Astro Arena they had an overflow of over 15,000 people,[28] and announced the beginning of a pro-family movement to oppose politicians who had been supporting feminism and liberalism, and to promote "family values" in American politics, and so moved the Republican Party to the right and defeated the ratification of the ERA.[29]

Opposition to Equal Rights Amendment

Symbol used on signs and buttons of ERA opponents

Schlafly became an outspoken opponent of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) during the 1970s as the organizer of the "STOP ERA" campaign. STOP was a backronym for "Stop Taking Our Privileges". She argued that the ERA would take away gender-specific privileges currently enjoyed by women, including "dependent wife" benefits under Social Security, separate restrooms for males and females, and exemption from Selective Service (the military draft).[30][31] She was opposed by groups such as the National Organization for Women (NOW) and the ERAmerica coalition. The Homemakers' Equal Rights Association was formed to counter Schlafly's campaign.[32]

In 1972, when Schlafly began her campaign against the Equal Rights Amendment, the ERA had already been ratified by 28 of the required 38 states.[33] Seven more states ratified the amendment after Schlafly began organizing opposition, but another five states rescinded their ratifications. The last state to ratify the ERA was Indiana, where State Senator Wayne Townsend cast the tie-breaking vote in January 1977.[34] (Nevada, Illinois and Virginia ratified the ERA between 2017 and 2020, many years after the deadline to do so.)[35]

Phyllis Schlafly at a protest in front of the White House on February 4, 1977

The Equal Rights Amendment was narrowly defeated, having only achieved ratification in a total 35 states.[6] Political scientist Jane J. Mansbridge concluded in her history of the ERA:

Many people who followed the struggle over the ERA believed—rightly in my view—that the Amendment would have been ratified by 1975 or 1976 had it not been for Phyllis Schlafly's early and effective effort to organize potential opponents.[36]

Joan Williams argues, "ERA was defeated when Schlafly turned it into a war among women over gender roles."[37] Historian Judith Glazer-Raymo argues:

As moderates, we thought we represented the forces of reason and goodwill but failed to take seriously the power of the family values argument and the single-mindedness of Schlafly and her followers. The ERA's defeat seriously damaged the women's movement, destroying its momentum and its potential to foment social change ... Eventually, this resulted in feminist dissatisfaction with the Republican Party, giving the Democrats a new source of strength that when combined with overwhelming minority support, helped elect Bill Clinton to the presidency in 1992 and again in 1996.[38]

Critics of Schlafly viewed her advocacy against equal rights and her role as a working professional as a contradiction. Gloria Steinem and author Pia de Solenni, among others, considered it ironic that in Schlafly's role as an advocate for the full-time mother and wife, she herself was a lawyer, newsletter editor, touring speaker, and political activist.[26][39]

On May 1, 2008, the trustees of Washington University in St. Louis, announced that Schlafly would receive an honorary degree at the graduation ceremony for the Class of 2008. This news was met with objection from some students and faculty, who complained she was anti-feminist and criticized her work in defeating the Equal Rights Amendment.[72] In a letter, fourteen law professors complained Schlafly' career demonstrated "anti-intellectualism in pursuit of a political agenda."[73]

While the trustees' honorary-degree committee unanimously approved who would be honored, five student-members of the committee complained, in writing, that they were required to vote for the five people to be honored, as a slate, rather than individually, and thought that the selection of Schlafly was a mistake, despite her prominence as a famous graduate of Washington University.[74] In the days before the graduation ceremony, Washington University Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton explained the trustees' decision to award Schlafly an honorary degree with the following statement of disclaimer:

In bestowing this degree, the University is not endorsing Mrs. Schlafly's views or opinions; rather, it is recognizing an alumna of the University whose life and work have had a broad impact on American life and have sparked widespread debate and controversies that in many cases have helped people better formulate and articulate their own views about the values they hold.[75]

At the May 16, 2008, commencement ceremony, Schlafly was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, yet faculty and students protested to rescind Schlafly's honorary degree. During the ceremony, hundreds of the 14,000 people in attendance, including one-third of the graduating class and some faculty, silently stood and turned their backs to Schlafly in protest.[76] In the days before the commencement there were protests regarding the awarding of an honorary degree; Schlafly described the protesters as "a bunch of losers".[72] Moreover, after the ceremony, Schlafly said that the protesters were "juvenile" and "I'm not sure they're mature enough to graduate."[76] As planned, Schlafly did not address the graduating class, nor did any other honored guest, except for the commencement speaker, news commentator Chris Matthews of MSNBC.[77]

On October 20, 1949, she married attorney John Fred Schlafly Jr., a member of a wealthy St. Louis family; he died in 1993. His grandfather, August, immigrated in 1854 from Switzerland. In the late 1870s, the three brothers founded the firm of Schlafly Bros., which dealt in groceries, Queensware (dishes made by Wedgwood), hardware, and agricultural implements.[78] Fred and Phyllis Schlafly were both active Catholics. They linked Catholicism to Americanism and often exhorted Catholics to join the anti-communist crusade.[79]

Fred and Phyllis Schlafly moved across the Mississippi River to Alton, Illinois, and had six children: John, Bruce, Roger, Liza, Andrew, and Anne.[80] When her husband died in 1993, she moved to Ladue, Missouri. In 1992, their eldest son, John, was outed as gay by Queer Week magazine.[19] Schlafly acknowledged that John is gay, but stated that he embraces his mother's views.[19][81] Andrew is also a lawyer and activist, and created the wiki-based Conservapedia.[82] Anne married the only child of Nobel-winning scientists Carl and Gerty Cori.[83]

Schlafly was the aunt of conservative anti-feminist author Suzanne Venker; together they wrote The Flipside of Feminism: What Conservative Women Know — and Men Can't Say.[84]

Schlafly died of cancer on September 5, 2016, at her home in Ladue, Missouri, at the age of 92.[66][85]

Schlafly was the author of 26 books on subjects ranging from child care to phonics education. She wrote a syndicated weekly newspaper column for Creators Syndicate.[86]

Schlafly's published works include:

• A Choice Not an Echo (Pere Marquette Press, 1964) ISBN 0-686-11486-8
• Grave Diggers (with Chester Ward) (Pere Marquette Press, 1964) ISBN 0-934640-03-3
• Strike from Space: A Megadeath Mystery (Pere Marquette Press, 1965) ISBN 80-7507-634-6
• Safe Not Sorry (Pere Marquette Press, 1967) ISBN 0-934640-06-8
• The Betrayers (Pere Marquette Press, 1968) ISBN B0006CY0CQ
• Mindszenty the Man (with Josef Vecsey) (Cardinal Mindszenty Foundation, 1972) ISBN B00005WGD6
• Kissinger on the Couch (Arlington House Publishers, 1974) ISBN 0-87000-216-3
• Ambush at Vladivostok, with Chester Ward (Pere Marquette Press, 1976) ISBN 0-934640-00-9
• The Power of the Positive Woman (Crown Pub, 1977) ISBN 0-87000-373-9
• The Power of the Christian Woman (Standard Pub, 1981) ISBN B0006E4X12
• The End of an Era (Regnery Publishing, 1982) ISBN 0-89526-659-8
• Equal Pay for UNequal Work (Eagle Forum, 1984) ISBN 99950-3-143-4
• Child Abuse in the Classroom (Crossway Books, 1984) ISBN 0-89107-365-5
• Pornography's Victims (Crossway Books, 1987) ISBN 0-89107-423-6
• Who Will Rock the Cradle?: The Battle for Control of Child Care in America (World Publications, 1989) ISBN 978-0849931987
• First Reader (Pere Marquette Press, 1994) ISBN 0-934640-24-6
• Turbo Reader (Pere Marquette Press, 2001) ISBN 0-934640-16-5
• Feminist Fantasies, foreword by Ann Coulter (Spence Publishing Company, 2003) ISBN 1-890626-46-5
• The Supremacists: The Tyranny of Judges And How to Stop It (Spence Publishing Company, 2004) ISBN 1-890626-55-4
• Judicial Tyranny: The New Kings of America? – contributing author (Amerisearch, 2005) ISBN 0-9753455-6-7
• The Flipside of Feminism: What Conservative Women Know—and Men Can't Say (WorldNetDaily, 2011) ISBN 978-1935071273
• No Higher Power: Obama's War on Religious Freedom (Regnery Publishing, 2012) ISBN 978-1621570127
• Who Killed the American Family? (WND Books, 2014) ISBN 978-1938067525
• A Choice Not an Echo: Updated and Expanded 50th Anniversary Edition (Regnery Publishing, 2014) ISBN 978-1621573159
• How the Republican Party Became Pro-Life (Dunrobin Publishing, 2016) ISBN 978-0-9884613-9-0
• The Conservative Case for Trump – posthumously, with Ed Martin and Brett M. Decker (Regnery Publishing, 2016) ISBN 978-1-62157-628-0

Phyllis Schlafly is mentioned extensively in the 7th episode of the 3rd season of the comedy TV series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, titled "Marvelous Radio". Set in 1960, the episode sees Midge (Rachel Brosnahan) agreeing to participate in a live radio commercial for Schlafly. Initially, Midge is enthusiastic towards the prospect of supporting a woman running for Congress. However, after learning about her views, which are portrayed as ultra-conservative and antisemitic, she changes her mind and refuses to speak her part, while already at the recording studio with the broadcast about to start.[87]

The FX miniseries Mrs. America also partially focuses on Schlafly's life and activism, with Cate Blanchett portraying Schlafly. Though some praise the series for its accuracy,[88] Schlafly's family members, among other critics, dispute the accuracy of several accounts in the series.[89][90]

• 1964 (film)
• Mrs. America, a TV miniseries based on Schlafly and her role on the Equal Rights Amendment; Schlafly is played by Cate Blanchett.[91]
• Mary Whitehouse, British conservative activist

• Critchlow, Donald T. Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservatism: A Woman's Crusade Princeton University Press, 2005. 422 pp. ISBN 0-691-07002-4.
• Ehrenreich, Barbara. 1983. The Hearts of Men: American Dreams and the Flight from Commitment New York: Anchor Books
• Felsenthal, Carol. The Sweetheart of the Silent Majority: The Biography of Phyllis Schlafly (Doubleday, 1981). ISBN 0-89526-873-6.

• Farber, David. The Rise and Fall of Modern American Conservatism: A Short History (2010) pp. 119–58
• Hallow, Ralph Z. "Conservatives' first lady sparked pro-family effort." The Washington Times: October 7, 2005.
• A Choice Not an Echo, amazon.com; accessed September 7, 2016.
• Spruill, Marjorie J. Divided We Stand: The Battle Over Women's Rights and Family Values That Polarized American Politics (2017) Bloomsbury. accessed July 12, 2017.
• The Sweetheart of the Silent Majority: The Biography of Phyllis Schlafly, by Carol Felsenthal (New York: Doubleday & Co., 1981)
• Famous in America: The Passion to Succeed: Jane Fonda, George Wallace, Phyllis Schlafly, John Glenn, by Peter N Carroll (New York: Dutton, 1985)
• Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservatism: A Woman's Crusade, by Donald T Critchlow (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2005)
• Missouri Innovators: Famous (and Infamous) Missourians who led the way in their field, by Paul W Bass (Missouri: The Acclaim Press, 2019)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Phyllis Schlafly.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Phyllis Schlafly.

• Phyllis Schlafly Eagles website
• Works by or about Phyllis Schlafly in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Phyllis Schlafly Collection (1972–1982) in the Western Historical Manuscript Collection, University of Missouri-St. Louis
• Appearances on C-SPAN
  • In Depth interview with Schlafly, January 5, 2003
• Phyllis Schlafly at Find a Grave
• Interview with Phyllis Schlafly (2014), 1964 Interviews Collection, American Archive of Public Broadcasting