Phyllis Schlafly (continued from page 8)

help finance the anti-ERA activities during the first few years.)

In a sense, Phyllis Schlafly was the leader of an ad -hoc movement waiting for an issue and the Right was waiting for a moral cause. The Left had civil rights and Viet Nam for claiming truth and virtue; the Right would have Right to Life and soon anti-ERA and anti-women's liberation.

Schlafly Finds Her Calling

The Equal Rights Amendment had been introduced annually in Congress since 1923 and been denied. In 1971 the ERA was no longer radical or threatening. The provisions of the proposed amendment seemed so simple that there was hardly a debate on it. On October 12, 1971, the House passed ERA by 354 to 33; on March 22, 1972, the Senate approved ERA 84 to 8. Within a year after Congress sent ERA to the states for ratification, 30 states had ratified and only 8 more were left to make ERA a part of the Constitution.

In 1971 Phyllis Schlafly was not interested and did not see ERA as an issue worth bothering about. She was too involved in testifying at Senate Defense hearings against SALT I negotiations. When she finally read the Equal Rights Amendment, all other causes faded. History was providing Phyllis Schlafly with "her calling". She would mount forces against ERA; she would symbolize the right to rescue the American woman and the American family from its pull toward the corruption of American values in the name of women's rights.

Her first attack on the ERA appeared in the February 1972 issue of "The Phyllis Schlafly Report". From that time on she has been writing, organizing, debating and lecturing to stop ERA. How did she translate her opposition to ERA into

Margie Adam (continued from page 6).

aspect of Margie's new album. Again and again I am struck, as I was at Kent State, by the power of her message and its immediacy through Margie's intense musical presentation. And perhaps that message, so human-concerned, valuing life and social justice, comforting and strengthening those who share the struggle to soar free, repays in full) the list of musical "debits" that I have tallied. Fear of feelings; recognition of change; caring for those life-threatened and vulnerable, and for ourselves; protecting children, the earth, facing the challenge to grow: the message is a woman's message, often without specific detail, but with generalized ideas opening broad meaning to a wide range of our society, encompassing women and those men who would understand and support women's will to soar.

"We Shall Go Forth" has plenty of Margie's style of reaching out, connecting with her audience both in the lyrics and in including audience sing-along participation. The in-concert three-dimensionality comes across well in this recording and enhances its interest for those who haven't seen Margie Adam'in actual performance,

Technically the album is sophisticated and clean. Voice and piano (a fine, rich-timbred instrument which Margie uses with a broad range of colors) are in nice balance, with nary a distorted moment. Fadeins and -outs are neat and managed at appropriate times to pick up just the right amount of audience activity or a lead-in word or two by Margie. Extraneous squeaks, coughs and sneezes have been carefully avoided, thanks to some nice engineering and possibly a super-healthy audience.

Page 10/What She Wants/September, 1982

such an effective campaign in the remaining unratified states? In October 1973, she founded and appointed herself national chair of Stop ERA. She brought 25 years of experience as a political activist; she had a core of female political leaders, her loyal ⚫ supporters from the NFRW; and she had her newsletter which reached 3,000 persons at first and grew to 35,000 circulation in 1980. Since 1968 Phyllis had been conducting yearly political action leadership programs.

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The Conferences really started to hum when Schlafly found ERA, an issue around which to rally her troops. She called them 'training conferences' and meant it. The training ran the gamut from how to get your anti-message on the 'boob' tube, mount an effective letterwriting campaign, testify at public hearings, hold a press conference, set up a phone bank, hold a fund raiser,...infiltrate the feminist camp to learn ERA strategy. (Felsenthal, p. 267)

Stop ERA chapters developed all over the country. Oklahoma's legislature was the first to receive copies of Schlafly's "What's Wrong With Equal Rights for Women?" and Oklahoma became the first state to reject ERA. Phyllis then testified before legislatures in Georgia, Virginia and Missouri, and all three states rejected.

By 1976 she was in command of a highly organized and disciplined lobby group. In Illinois she had 20,000 women working with her; she could rally 1,000 women for a routine rally and count on 12,000 to come to the Illinois capital for a demonstration by notifying her 59 top lieutenants, one for each legislative district.

Schlafly is a genius of public relations. She paid a lot of attention to monopolizing the TV. She has appeared on hundreds of talk shows, lectured all over the country and debated with the top leaders of the feminist movement. And the tide began to turn.

In 1974 only 4 states ratified.

In 1975 only 1 state ratified, 16 rejected. In 1977 only I state ratified, 9 rejected.

In 1978 no states ratified, 6 rejected.

She articulates a common theme for a diverse coalition of Catholics, Fundamentalists and Orthodox Jews. The common fear for these religious groups and conservatives is that ERA will change women's role in the family as we know it. Women' will not be content to stay at home with the children. The family will be destroyed and the moral fiber of the country will be weakened. (These same arguments were used against educating women in the 18th century, against women speaking out publicly on slavery in the 19th century, and against women getting the vote in the 20th century.)

What's Next?

From Phyllis Schlafly's perspective she is encouraged by the recent victories. She believes the traditional family, with the woman happily at home serving children and husband while the husband goes off to work to provide for his family is the basis for a stable home and a stable society. Her goal is to turn back the gains made by women in the 1960's and 1970's.

300 Stop ERA activists plotted plans for the 80's-rebuilding U.S. military strength, passing a constitutional ban on abortion, ensuring parental control over school textbooks and of course preventing women from being included in any future draft.... The ERA was a blessing in disguise because we'll be mobilized for further causes, explained Alyse O'Neill.... We know the contacts and where the troops are. There's a bottomless pit of issues we're waiting to sink our teeth into.

(Felsenthal, pp. 318-19)

Will Phyllis Schlafly be as tireless, energetic and effective in the 1980's? It's hard to predict. She is confident about the future.

References:

Current Biography, 1978. "Schlafly, Phyllis (Stewart)"

Felsenthal, Carol. The Sweetheart of the Silent Majority. New York: Doubleday & Company, 1981, Schlafly, Phyllis. The Power of the Positive Woman. New York: Arlington Publishers.

Nice Jewish Girls (continued from page 7)

section called "Jewish Identity: A Coat of Many Colors" in which there are among other things essays by Sephardic Jews. So often being Jewish is "defined by Western/Ashkenazi Jews," writes Rachel Wahba in her essay, "Some Of Us Are Arabic". "Even after I tell people I am an Arabic Jew, many continue to assume i. come from a, Yiddish background. Arabic was spoken in my home, and I never tasted a bagel with cream cheese and lox until I came to the United States". Racism is clear in the assumption that all Jews come from a Yiddish/Ashkenazi background.

Also in this section is a long questioning essay by Adrienne Rich entitled "Split at the Root". Her father was a Jew, her mother a Gentile. In Jewish law she is not considered a Jew, but "according to Nazi logic," she would have been a Mischling, first degree and hence subject to the Final Solution. Rich examines her own feelings over the years, a childhood of assimilation, a poem from 1960 including the line "Split at the root, neither Gentile nor Jew, Yankee nor Rebel" and now as she still questions. For her, "this essay, then, has no conclusions: it is another beginning...." I believe there is more hope in begin"I nings with questions, rather than beginnings with assumptions.

One of the most moving (tears-in-my-eyes) pieces is Davida Ishatova's "What May Be Tsores to You is Naches to Me" (tsores means woe, troubles, and naches means joy, contentment). Davida and her

mother, Henia Goodman, performed at this year's Michigan Womyn's Music Festival. Part of what they did is included in this anthology. It is about her relationship and deep connections with her mother. It is about music and survival.

In the past I have read anthologies where I felt the quality of the writing was very uneven. This anthology has consistently good, high-quality writing and an interesting variety of styles-all the benefits of an anthology without the drawbacks.

Consuming (continued

(continued from page 9)

would keep more skills and money within the.com munity.

Even if we become more successful in patronizing feminists' services and businesses, we need to look more closely at our consumer habits and re-evaluate. what is necessary for the cultivation of the "good. life". When purchasing an automobile, for instance,.ok is it enough to buy it from a woman salesperson or a *** woman-owned dealership, or should we look at the question of what cars mean in our society, their effects on the environment, etc.? In short, what institutions do we support each time we buy a car or the gasoline it takes to operate one? I will address these topics in a future issue of What She Wants.