Phyllis Schlafly: Shepherd of the Right

By Mickey Stern

Her outward demeanor and dress is one of a feminine, bridge-playing, affluent housewife. She smiles a lot, giggles, worries about her appearance and makes polite conversation. (Current Biography, p. 363)

Am 1 describing a typical middle-class woman who has devoted her life to her family, home and volunteer work? Not really.

Your average housewife, does not have a Master's degree from Radcliffe, nor a law degree from Washington University. Your average housewife has not twice run for Congress, testified before Senate committees and authored nine books. And your average houswife does not. send out a monthly newsletter to 35,000 subscribers nor write a syndicated column.

Obviously I am describing a liberated woman,' a feminist, a professional woman, a politician or a lob: byist. Not really....

Who is this woman who seems to be a walking contradiction?

She is Phyllis Schlafly, “an ultraconservative author, lecturer and politician whose unremitting opposition to feminist goals has made her....the anathema of the women's movement." (Current Biography, p. 360) She has become the symbol for Stop ERA and “traditional womanhood" Her involvement with other conservative issues has carried her the title of "Sweetheart of the Silent Majority. Growing Up Conservative

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What were the experiences and influences, on Schlafly's life that have made her such a tireless, energetic and effective enemy of ERA and women's liberation?

Phyllis Stewart born in 1924 in St Louis, Missouri, and her younger sister had an uneventful, happy and secure childhood until the Great Depres sion hit. Her father, Bruce Stewart, lost his job as an engineer and was never employed again. Despite the financial crisis, that affected the family during the Depression years; het father never lost his almosť religious belief in the free enterprise system. Phyllis was weaned on conservative politics by her father with whom she had a very close and loving relation ship. Her political style is modeled closely after his. [Her father) did not equivocate. People and trends and issues and policies were good or bad, black or white. Most things were as simple as that. He felt perfectly comfortable in speaking in absolutes. (Felsenthal, p. 22).

Phyllis is not, only her father's child, but her mother's-as well. During the Depression her mother, Odile Stewart, was forced to work to support. the family

Some of [Phyllis'] impatience with women who glorify working and, cheapen homemaking probably stems from this fundamental fact of her early life her mother was forced to work at a time when women didn't, when she would: have preferred to keep house and work for good causes instead of wages. (Felsenthal, p. 13):

Coming from an old, socially prominent family, her mother was determined that her daughters have the best Catholic schooling, attend Junior League dancing school and go to concerts. She worked seven days a week at a full-time and: part-time job as a librarian to give her children a solid religious, and intellectual upbringing. The little time, available to her. was devoted to writing a book on the history. of St. Louis:

Phyllis inherited her mother's traits of being very disciplined, highly organized and hardworking.

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These qualities combined with a facility and love for research and learning enabled her to become valedictorian of her class and win a scholarship to a small women's Catholic college. The school was not challenging enough for Phyllis and she transferred to Washington University, earning a Phi Beta Kappa key and a scholarship to Radcliffe. She financed her way through Washington Univeristy by working nights as a gunner at an ammunition plant.

Schlafly in her debates on ERA always puts down women who look to the federal government for financial help in getting an education. She believes the government doesn't owe anyone an education; if you want to go to school, you work for it as she did. However, she discounts or ignores that the federal government played an active role in encouraging women to work in factories to help the war effort. Earning good money was unique to the war period when it was socially acceptable for women to do a man's job and get paid higher wages than women's

AFTER E.R.A. OUR SOCIAL AGENDA IS: NO ABORTION, NO SEX EDUCATION, NO GAY RIGHTS, SCHOOL PRAYER AND NUCLEAR BUILD UP!

PHYLIS

OVER THE PAIN BOW

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ork: Phyllis Stewart's education would have been limited had she not been able to have a man's job.

Phyllis completed her M.A. in Government in one year at Radcliffe. Her professors considered her brilliant and offered her a fellowship to go on for her PhD but she decided she needed to work. Early Victories and Defeats

Phyllis first job took her to Washington, D.C. She was a researcher for American Enterprise Association, a conservative think tank, writing speeches and analyzing bills for conservative Congressmen After a year she moved back to St. Louis to be near her family. Immediately she became involved with a conservative candidate running for Congress. She became a one-person whirlwind campaign Organization, doing everything from writing press releases to speech research. She knew more about ward politics than the candidate did.

During the last month of the campaign she found a full-time job working for two St. Louis banks. Her job was writing speeches and editing the newsletter. Before long, Phyllis took over the entire research, writing and production of the newsletter.

Fred Schlafly, a lawyer active in ultraconservative politics, wanted to meet the editor of the bank's newsletter. He was impressed with the thoroughness of the research. He was surprised to find a woman who shared his values, his politics and matched his intellect. They were married in 1949.

Fred, has played an important role in Schlafly's political development. He was even more religious and anti-red than she was. Friends and family acknowledge his influence on her.

Her growing brood of children did not stop Phyllis

from remaining active in Republican politics. “As a nursing mother I took each of my six children to political meetings across the state". (Current Biography, p. 361) Her political involvement increased when she ran as a Republican candidate for Congress in 1952. She was 28 years old and a new mother. She won the primary, to everyone's surprise, and although she lost the election she put up a vigorous campaign. This campaign also gave her an opportunity to improve her speaking skills until she felt confident enough to debate her opponent on the issues of the day.

Her capacity for hard work and boundless energy and passionate love of politics are striking characteristics of her personality. Asked if she had any hobbies, she said, Yes, nuclear strategy and Republican national conventions. (Later on, her skill at communicating through a newsletter became one of her greatest assets in fighting the ERA movement.) Phyllis had been attending every Republican convention since 1952. She wrote a book in 1964 about the inside story of how American Presidents are chosen, which caused an uproar at the Republican convention of that year. The book, A Choice, Not An Echo, "attempted to prove that the eastern internationalist wing of the Republican Party, the J.P. Morgans and the Rockefellers who she labeled 'kingmakers' had dictated the choice of every Republican nominee since 1936". (Felsenthal, p. 172). The press soundly criticized the book for its "fantastic political indictments, "full of false statements" and "guilty of phony documentation". (Felsenthal, p. 174)

The book also promoted Barry Goldwater as the best candidate, one who could not be controlled by the "kingmakers". The book, sold three million copies and helped Barry Goldwater win the California primary and eventually the Republican Presidential nomination. Goldwater's overwhelming defeat made Phyllis Schlafly a very unpopular person with the more liberal Republican male leadership.

As Vice President of the National Federation of Republican Women (NFRW), she was scheduled to take over the presidency ifi 1966. Ray Bliss, Chair man of the Republican National Committee, was responsible for making sure Schlafly did not get elected. He got the nominating committee of the NFRW to by-pass Schlafly and nominate Gladys O'Donnel as their candidate. Not easily intimidated by the established male leadership, she decided to fight back and challenge the nomination.

Five thousand women came to the convention; the majority of them supported Schlafly. What emerged was a bitter, emotionally charged and dirty fight, a new experience for most of these women. The credentials committee disqualified many of Schlafly's supporters on questionable technicalities. Busloads of women were brought in from surrounding states to vote for the opposition. Phyllis was prevented from addressing the convention and her supporters were not recognized by the chair. The final blow was voting machine irregularities. Phyllis Schlafly lost by 400 votes.

Three thousand women followed her out of the convention, frustrated, angry and wanting revenge. They suggested, forming their own grassroots organization. Phyllis wasn't ready.

She returned home, withdrew from the Federation and decided to put her political energy into a monthly newsletter, "The Phyllis Schlafly Report". In this way she could continue to discuss the political issues of the day and keep in touch with her growing number of followers, including the 3,000 women from the NFRW conference. She also started the Eagle Trust Fund to raise money for the causes she was writing about in her newsletter. (This fund would

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