Phyllis Schlafly, Conservative Activist, Dies At 92

The cause of death was not given. I was able to speak with her by phone only a few weeks ago, and she sounded as resilient as ever.

Opponents criticized Schlafly as hypocritical, for preaching that a woman’s place was at home while pursuing her own political career (and a law degree).

Called a friend and “profound influence” by leading Southern Baptist women, Schlafly opposed the feminist movement for more than 40 years.

“The pay gap between men and women is not all bad because it helps to promote and sustain marriages”, she said. But she was hardly a typical stay-at-home housewife/mother. She would respond that politics was a just a hobby-albeit one that eventually transformed the GOP, by politically mobilizing vast numbers of grassroots conservatives.

The work against the ERA prompted the founding of Schlafly’s Eagle Forum group, but it also marked her as one of the most important conservative voices in the United States.

Phyllis Schlafly is why we don’t have an Equal Rights Amendment today.

She campaigned against Communism and is credited with creating the political climate that helped Ronald Reagan become president. There were many unbelievable people on and off the list of speakers there, but she still stood out. Opponents cited her marriage to John Fred Schlafly Jr., a wealthy IL lawyer who died in 1993, as the reason she had opportunity to inveigh against liberal and feminist causes.

Schlafly and other anti-abortion protestors at the U.S. Supreme Court in 1992. She argued the amendment would mean women in combat roles, same-sex marriage, and taxpayer funding for abortions.

Upon her death, Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the CLC’s successor organization, recommended via Twitter a video from the early 1970s in which a representative from the National Organization for Women “clearly underestimated” Schlafly in a debate. In a 1978 appearance at the IL capitol she was accompanied by backers bearing loaves of home-made bread. She would have obviously said no. Schlafly argued that nearly no laws existed at a state level that discriminated against women in the ’70s, but that society recognized through culture and regulation many privileges that benefited her sex. The constitutional amendment came close to passage when both chambers of Congress passed it in 1972 and 35 states ratified it.

Phyllis McAlpin Stewart was born in St. Louis on August 15, 1924.

She graduated from Washington University in 1944, when she was 19.

“First of all, I want to thank my husband, Fred, for letting me come”, she liked to announce at anti-ERA rallies. She single-handedly made “stay at home mom” an acceptable lifestyle for educated women, after feminists had demonized it in the late 60s and 70s.

Her book, Conscience of a Conservative, written in 1960 and originally self-published, sold 3 million copies and gave support to Sen. Before she died, the First Lady of the Conservative Movement endorsed Trump.

With her mother as a model, “I grew up believing that I should support myself”, Schlafly said, according to a 2006 New York Times story.