Phyllis Schlafly, a conservative political activist and a devout Catholic, who was involved in mobilizing women against the Equal Rights Amendment, passed away at the age of 92 at her home in St. Louis, Missouri.
She was a vocal anti-feminist, who famously told Newsweek in 1979 that feminism "has caused a lot of women to have low self-esteem, to convince themselves [that they] are repressed."
Her political activism helped steer the Republican Party to broadly adopt many of the conservative stances on religion and family.
A conservative interest group, Eagle Forum, started by Schlafly in 1972, opposes abortion and lobbies to defund the Planned Parenthood.
She liked to call herself a "housewife," despite an active public life, and her prominent role in shaping the conservative political movements since the 1960s through the 1990s. She has …show more content…
The book supported Senator Barry Goldwater who was a proponent of conservative politics but was also defeated in his presidential bid the same year. The conservative ideology then found its way to American political forefront through President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.
Schlafly's fight against the ERA was what brought her into public space. She maintained that women were not publicly ill-treated, and that the amendment will take away several protections from women which included night shifts and heavy lifting jobs. Apart from withdrawal of special provisions for women in jobs, Schlafly pointed out that ERA would hurt the interests of women by removing social protections such as right to alimony and custody of children.
The ERA, according to her, would have had many other repercussions on women such as mandatory conscription, co-ed bathrooms, and elimination of distinction in assigning women to unsafe
She was a vocal anti-feminist, who famously told Newsweek in 1979 that feminism "has caused a lot of women to have low self-esteem, to convince themselves [that they] are repressed."
Her political activism helped steer the Republican Party to broadly adopt many of the conservative stances on religion and family.
A conservative interest group, Eagle Forum, started by Schlafly in 1972, opposes abortion and lobbies to defund the Planned Parenthood.
She liked to call herself a "housewife," despite an active public life, and her prominent role in shaping the conservative political movements since the 1960s through the 1990s. She has …show more content…
The book supported Senator Barry Goldwater who was a proponent of conservative politics but was also defeated in his presidential bid the same year. The conservative ideology then found its way to American political forefront through President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.
Schlafly's fight against the ERA was what brought her into public space. She maintained that women were not publicly ill-treated, and that the amendment will take away several protections from women which included night shifts and heavy lifting jobs. Apart from withdrawal of special provisions for women in jobs, Schlafly pointed out that ERA would hurt the interests of women by removing social protections such as right to alimony and custody of children.
The ERA, according to her, would have had many other repercussions on women such as mandatory conscription, co-ed bathrooms, and elimination of distinction in assigning women to unsafe