Phyllis McAlpin Stewart Schlafly (August 15, 1924 – September 5, 2016) was an American constitutional lawyer and conservative activist. She was known for her staunch social and political views, her opposition to modern feminism, and her successful campaign against the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Her 1964 book A Choice, Not an Echo sold more than three million copies as a push-back against liberal Republican leader Nelson Rockefeller and the powerful Eastern Republican Establishment. She co-authored books on national defense and was highly critical of arms-control agreements with the former Soviet Union. Schlafly founded the Eagle Forum in 1972 and the Eagle Forum Education & Legal Defense Fund. She was the Eagle Forum board chairman and CEO and maintained a presence on the lecture circuit until her death. Starting in 1967, she published a newsletter, The Phyllis Schlafly Report.

Family

Schlafly's great-grandfather Stewart, a Presbyterian, emigrated from Scotland to New York in 1851 and moved westward through Canada before settling in Michigan. Her grandfather, Andrew F. Stewart, was a master mechanic with the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway. Schlafly's father, John Bruce Stewart, was a machinist and salesman of industrial equipment, principally for Westinghouse. He became unemployed in 1932 during the Great Depression and could not find permanent work until World War II. He was granted a patent in 1944 for a rotary engine.

Schlafly's mother, the former Odile Dodge, was the daughter of attorney Ernest C. Dodge. She attended college and graduate school. Before her marriage, she worked as a teacher at a private girls' school in St. Louis. During the Depression Schlafly's mother went back to work as a librarian and a school teacher to support her family.

Personal life

Schlafly was christened Phyllis McAlpin Stewart, and born and raised in St. Louis. During the Depression, Schlafly's father faced long-term unemployment, and her mother entered the labor market. Mrs. Stewart was able to keep the family afloat and maintained Phyllis in a Catholic girls' school.

Schlafly started college early and worked as a model for a time. In 1944, she earned her Bachelor of Arts Phi Beta Kappa from Washington University in St. Louis. In 1945, she received a Master of Arts degree in government from Radcliffe College (then a female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard). In her 1966 book, Strike From Space (1965), Schlafly notes that during World War II, she worked as "a ballistics gunner and technician at the largest ammunition plant in the world". She earned a J.D. from Washington University Law School in St. Louis in 1978.

On October 20, 1949, when she was twenty-five years old, Phyllis married attorney John Fred Schlafly, Jr., a member of a wealthy St. Louis family, who 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. These Schlafly brothers later sold that business and concentrated on banking and other enterprises that made them wealthy. Fred and Phyllis Schlafly were both active Catholics. They linked Catholicism to Americanism and often exhorted Catholics to join the anti-communist crusade.

Fred and Phyllis Schlafly moved across the Mississippi River to Alton, Illinois, and had six children: John, Bruce, Roger, Liza, Andrew, and Anne S. Cori. In 1992, their eldest son, John, was outed as homosexual by Queer Week magazine. Schlafly acknowledged that John is gay, but stated that he embraces his mother's views.

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. Schlafly was also the aunt of lawyer and businessman Thomas Schlafly, who owns the Saint Louis Brewery. Since 2014, Phyllis opposed Thomas's company's trademark application to use the Schlafly name on their commercial microbrews because of potential damage to her reputation; her representative stated that alcohol has "a connotation that is the opposite of conservative values". The legal basis for the challenge, however, was that the proposed trademark consisted primarily of a surname. On August 14, 2016, the United States Patent and Trademark Office dismissed this argument.

Schafly died on September 5, 2016, at her home in Ladue, Missouri, at the age of 92.

Activism and political efforts

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.

In 1952, Schlafly ran for Congress as a Republican in the majority Democratic 24th congressional district of Illinois and lost to Charles Melvin Price. Schlafly's campaign was low-budget and promoted heavily through the local print media, and local entrepreneurs John M. and Spencer Olin as well as Texas oil billionaire H. L. Hunt. She also attended her first Republican National Convention that year and continued to attend each following convention. As part of the Illinois delegation of the 1952 Republican convention, Schlafly endorsed U.S. Senator Robert A. Taft of Ohio to be the party nominee for the presidential election. At the 1960 Republican National Convention, Schlafly helped lead a revolt of "moral conservatives" who opposed Richard Nixon's stance (as The New York Times puts it) "against segregation and discrimination."

She came to national attention when millions of copies of her self-published book, A Choice Not an Echo, were distributed in support of Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign, especially in the hotly fought California winner-take-all delegates GOP primary. 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.

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.

Schlafly joined the John Birch Society, but quit because she thought that the main communist threats to the nation were external rather than internal. In 1970, she ran unsuccessfully for a House of Representatives seat in Illinois against Democratic incumbent George E. Shipley. This was midway in Nixon's first term as president.

Schlafly became an outspoken opponent of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) during the 1970s as the organizer of the "STOP ERA" campaign. STOP was an acronym for "Stop Taking Our Privileges." Schlafly 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 the Selective Service (the Army draft). She was opposed by groups such as the National Organization for Women (NOW) and the ERAmerica coalition. The Homemakers' Equal Rights Association was also formed to counter Schlafly's campaign.

In 1972, when Schlafly began her campaign against the Equal Rights Amendment, it had already been ratified by 28 of the required 38 states. Five 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.

The Equal Rights Amendment was narrowly defeated, having only achieved ratification in 35 states, five of which had subsequently rescinded their ratification. Experts agree that Schlafly was a key player. 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.

Joan Williams argues, "ERA was defeated when Schlafly turned it into a war among women over gender roles."[38] 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.

Critics of Schlafly saw her advocacy against equal rights and her role as a working professional as a contradiction. Gloria Steinem and author Pia de Solenni, among others, noted what they considered the irony in Schlafly's role as an advocate for the full-time mother and wife, while being herself a lawyer, editor of a monthly newsletter, regular speaker at anti-liberal rallies, and political activist.

In broadcast media, Schlafly provided commentaries on Chicago news radio station WBBM from 1973 to 1975, the CBS Morning News from 1974 to 1975, and then on CNN from 1980 to 1983. In 1983, she began creating syndicated daily 3-minute commentaries for radio. In 1989, she began hosting a weekly radio talk show, Eagle Forum Live.

Viewpoints

Schlafly focused opposition to the ERA on traditional gender roles, such as that only men should do the fighting in wartime. She pointed out that the amendment would eliminate the men-only draft requirement and guarantee the possibility that women would be subject to conscription and be required to have military combat roles in future wars. Defense of traditional gender roles proved to be a useful tactic. In Illinois her activists used traditional symbols of the American housewife. They took homemade bread, jams, and apple pies to the state legislators, with the slogans, "Preserve us from a congressional jam; Vote against the ERA sham" and "I am for Mom and apple pie."

According to historian Lisa Levenstein, who works largely in fields pertaining to women's history, the feminist movement in the late 1970s briefly attempted a program to help older divorced and widowed women. Many widows were ineligible for Social Security benefits, few divorcees actually received any alimony, and after a career as a housewife, few had skills to enter the labor force. The program, however, encountered sharp criticism from young activists who gave priority to poor minority women rather than the middle class. By 1980, NOW downplayed the program as it focused almost exclusively on the ERA. Schlafly moved into the vacuum. She denounced the feminists for abandoning older middle-class widows and divorcees in need and warned that ERA would equalize the laws for the benefit of man, stripping protections that older women urgently needed. She said the ERA was designed for the benefit of young career women and warned that if men and women had to be treated identically it would threaten the security of middle-aged housewives with no current job skills. The ERA would repeal protections such as alimony and eliminate the tendency for mothers to obtain custody over their children in divorce cases. Her argument that protective laws would be lost resonated with working-class women.

Schlafly told Time magazine in 1978, "I have cancelled speeches whenever my husband thought that I had been away from home too much."

In March 2007, Schlafly said in a speech at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, "By getting married, the woman has consented to sex, and I don't think you can call it rape."

In a March 30, 2006, interview, Schlafly attributed improvement in women's lives during the last decades of the 20th century to labor-saving devices such as the indoor clothes dryer and disposable diapers.

She called Roe v. Wade "the worst decision in the history of the U.S. Supreme Court" and said that it "is responsible for the killing of millions of unborn babies".

In 2007, while working to defeat a new version of the Equal Rights Amendment, she warned it would force courts to approve same-sex marriages and deny Social Security benefits for housewives and widows.

In college in 1945, Schlafly applauded the establishment of the United Nations. Over the years, however, she disdained the UN. On the 50th anniversary of the United Nations in 1995, Schlafly referred to it as "a cause for mourning, not celebration. It is a monument to foolish hopes, embarrassing compromises, betrayal of our servicemen, and a steady stream of insults to our nation. It is a Trojan Horse that carries the enemy into our midst and lures Americans to ride under alien insignia to fight and die in faraway lands." She opposed President Bill Clinton's decision in 1996 to send 20,000 American troops to Bosnia. Schlafly noted that Balkan nations have fought one another for 500 years and that the U.S. military should not be "policemen" of world trouble spots.

Prior to the 1994 Congressional elections, Schlafly condemned globalization through the World Trade Organization as a "direct attack on American sovereignty, independence, jobs, and economy ... any country that must change its laws to obey rulings of a world organization has sacrificed its sovereignty."

In late 2006, Schlafly collaborated with Jerome Corsi and Howard Phillips to create a website in opposition to the idea of a "North American Union", under which the United States, Mexico, and Canada would share a currency and be integrated in a structure similar to the European Union.

During the Cold War, Schlafly opposed arms control agreements with the Soviet Union. In 1961, she wrote that "[arms control] will not stop Red aggression any more than disarming our local police will stop murder, theft, and rape."

Schlafly was an outspoken critic of what she terms "activist judges", particularly on the Supreme Court. In 2005, Schlafly made headlines at a conference for the Judeo-Christian Council for Constitutional Restoration by suggesting that "Congress ought to talk about impeachment" of Justice Anthony Kennedy, citing as specific grounds Justice Kennedy's deciding vote to abolish the death penalty for minors. In April 2010, shortly after John Paul Stevens announced his retirement as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Schlafly called for the appointment of a military veteran to the Court, since Stevens had been a veteran and, with his retirement, the court was "at risk of being left without a single military veteran."

Schlafly did not endorse a candidate for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, but she spoke out against Mike Huckabee, who, she says, as governor left the Republican Party in Arkansas "in shambles". At the Eagle Forum, she has hosted U.S. Representative Tom Tancredo of Colorado, known for his opposition to illegal immigration. Before his election, she criticized Barack Obama as "an elitist who worked with words". During the election, she endorsed John McCain in an interview by saying: "Well, I'm a Republican, I'm supporting McCain". When asked about criticism of John McCain from Rush Limbaugh, she said: "Well, there are problems, we are trying to teach him".

Schlafly endorsed Michele Bachmann in December 2011 for the Iowa caucus of the 2012 Republican presidential primaries, citing Bachmann's work against "ObamaCare" and deficit spending and her (Bachmann's) support of "traditional values."

On February 3 Schlafly announced that she would be voting for Rick Santorum in the 2012 Missouri Republican primary.

In 2016, Schlafly endorsed Donald Trump's candidacy for president. The endorsement soon led to a breach in the Eagle Forum board. Schlafly broke with six dissident members, including her own daughter, Anne Corie, and Cathie Adams, the former short-term state chairman of the Texas Republican Party. Adams instead supports U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, Trump's principal challenger whom Adams considers a more conservative choice. Schlafly claimed that Adams attended a rogue board meeting with the intention of taking control of Eagle Forum. Schlafly hence called upon Corie, Adams, and the four other dissidents, all but one of whom support Cruz, to resign from the board. Schlafly further withdrew her support for Adams' current bid for vice chairman of the Republican Party of Texas at the pending state convention. Schlafly called Adams "disloyal" and claimed that Adams declined to return Schlafly's telephone call regarding the dispute.

Schlafly opposed same-sex marriage and civil unions: "[a]ttacks on the definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman come from the gay lobby seeking social recognition of their lifestyle." Linking the Equal Rights Amendment to LGBT rights and same-sex marriage played a role in Schlafly's opposition to the ERA.

Schlafly believed the Republican Party should reject immigration reform proposals; she told Focus Today that it is a "great myth" that the GOP needs to reach out to Latinos in the United States. "The people the Republicans should reach out to are the white votes, the white voters who didn’t vote in the last election. The propagandists are leading us down the wrong path," she said. "There’s not any evidence at all that these Hispanics coming in from Mexico will vote Republican."

Honorary degree and protests

On May 1, 2008, the trustees of Washington University in St. Louis announced that Schlafly would receive an honorary degree at the school's 2008 commencement ceremony. This was immediately met with objection by some students and faculty at the university who accused her of being anti-feminist and criticized her work on defeating the equal rights amendment. Fourteen university law professors wrote in a complaint letter that Schlafly's career demonstrated "anti-intellectualism in pursuit of a political agenda." While the trustees' honorary degree committee approved the honorees unanimously, five student members of the committee wrote to complain that they had to vote on the five honorees as a slate, in the final stage of the voting and felt the selection of Schlafly was a mistake though she may have well been the famous WU graduate. In the days leading up to the commencement ceremony, Washington University Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton explained the trustees' decision to award Schlafly’s degree with the following statement:

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.

At the May 16, 2008, commencement ceremony, Schlafly was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters degree. A protest to rescind Schlafly's honorary degree received support from faculty and students. During the ceremony, hundreds of the 14,000 attendees, including one third of the graduating students and some faculty, silently stood and turned their backs to Schlafly in protest. In the days leading up to the commencement there were several protests regarding her degree award; Schlafly described these protesters as "a bunch of losers." In addition, she stated after the ceremony that the protesters were "juvenile" and that, "I'm not sure they're mature enough to graduate." As planned, Schlafly did not give any speech during the commencement ceremony, nor did any of the other honorees except for commencement speaker, liberal commentator Chris Matthews of MSNBC.

Published works

Schlafly was the author of twenty-four books on subjects ranging from child care to phonics education. She wrote a syndicated weekly newspaper column for Creators Syndicate.

Schlafly's published works include:

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