48 Facts About Phyllis Schlafly

1.

Phyllis Stewart Schlafly was an American attorney, conservative activist, author, and anti-feminist spokesperson for the national conservative movement.

2.

Phyllis Schlafly held paleoconservative social and political views, opposed feminism, gay rights and abortion, and successfully campaigned against ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the US Constitution.

3.

In 1972, Phyllis Schlafly founded the Eagle Forum, a conservative political interest group, and remained its chairwoman and CEO until her death in 2016 while staying active in conservative causes.

4.

Phyllis Schlafly attended college and graduate school at Washington University in St Louis and Radcliffe College, respectively.

5.

Phyllis Schlafly's father was a machinist and salesman of industrial equipment, principally for Westinghouse.

6.

Phyllis Schlafly was granted a patent in 1944 for a rotary engine.

7.

Phyllis Schlafly attended Maryville College, but after one year, transferred to Washington University in St Louis.

8.

In Strike From Space, Phyllis Schlafly wrote that during World War II, she worked as "a ballistics gunner and technician at the largest ammunition plant in the world".

9.

Phyllis Schlafly earned a Juris Doctor degree from the Washington University School of Law in 1978.

10.

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.

11.

In 1952, Phyllis Schlafly ran for Congress as a Republican in the majority Democratic 24th congressional district of Illinois and lost to Charles Melvin Price by 117,408 votes to 63,778.

12.

Phyllis Schlafly attended her first Republican National Convention in 1952, and continued to attend each following convention.

13.

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

14.

Phyllis Schlafly had previously been a member of the John Birch Society, but quit, and later denied she had been a member because she feared her association with the organization would damage her book's reputation.

15.

In 1967, Phyllis Schlafly lost a bid for the presidency of the National Federation of Republican Women against the more moderate candidate Gladys O'Donnell of California.

16.

American feminists made their greatest bid for national attention at the 1977 National Women's Conference in Houston; however, historian Marjorie J Spruill argues that the anti-feminists led by Schlafly organized a highly successful counter-conference, the Pro-Life, Pro-Family Rally, to protest the National Women's Conference and make it clear that feminists did not speak for them.

17.

Phyllis Schlafly became an outspoken opponent of the Equal Rights Amendment during the 1970s as the organizer of the "STOP ERA" campaign.

18.

Phyllis Schlafly argued that the ERA would take away gender-specific privileges enjoyed by women, including "dependent wife" benefits under Social Security, separate restrooms for males and females, and exemption from Selective Service.

19.

Phyllis Schlafly was opposed by groups such as the National Organization for Women and the ERAmerica coalition.

20.

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

21.

Seven more states ratified the amendment after Phyllis Schlafly began organizing opposition, but another five states rescinded their ratifications.

22.

Critics of Phyllis Schlafly viewed her advocacy against equal rights and her role as a working professional as a contradiction.

23.

Gloria Steinem and author Pia de Solenni, among others, considered it ironic that in Phyllis Schlafly's role as an advocate for the full-time mother and wife, she herself was a lawyer, newsletter editor, touring speaker, and political activist.

24.

In broadcast media, Phyllis 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.

25.

Phyllis Schlafly focused political opposition to the ERA in defense of traditional gender roles, such as only men fighting in war.

26.

Phyllis Schlafly argued that the Equal Rights Amendment would eliminate the men-only draft and ensure that women would be equally subject to conscription and be required to serve in combat, and that defense of traditional gender roles proved a useful tactic.

27.

Phyllis Schlafly moved into the political vacuum, and denounced the feminists for abandoning older, middle-class widows and divorcees in need, and warned that the ERA would unbalance the laws in favor of men, stripping legal protections that older women urgently needed.

28.

Phyllis Schlafly said that the ERA was designed for the benefit of young career women, and warned that if men and women had to be treated equally, that social condition would threaten the security of middle-aged housewives without job skills.

29.

Phyllis Schlafly contended that the ERA would repeal legal protections, such as alimony, and eliminate the judicial tendency for divorced mothers to receive custody of their children.

30.

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

31.

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

32.

Phyllis Schlafly observed that Balkan nations have fought one another for 500 years and argued that the US military should not be "policemen" of world trouble spots.

33.

In late 2006, Phyllis 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.

34.

Phyllis Schlafly was an outspoken critic of what she termed "activist judges", particularly on the Supreme Court.

35.

In 2005, Phyllis 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.

36.

Phyllis 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".

37.

On February 3,2012, Phyllis Schlafly announced that she would be voting for Rick Santorum in that year's Missouri Republican primary.

38.

Phyllis Schlafly broke with six dissident members, including her daughter, Anne Cori, and Cathie Adams, the former state chairman of the Texas Republican Party.

39.

Phyllis 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.

40.

On May 1,2008, the trustees of Washington University in St Louis, announced that Phyllis Schlafly would receive an honorary degree at the graduation ceremony for the Class of 2008.

41.

At the May 16,2008, commencement ceremony, Phyllis Schlafly was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, yet faculty and students protested to rescind Phyllis Schlafly's honorary degree.

42.

In 1992, their eldest son, lawyer John Phyllis Schlafly, was outed as gay by Queer Week magazine.

43.

Phyllis Schlafly acknowledged that he was gay and stated that he agreed with his mother's opposition to same-sex marriage and extension of civil rights protection to gays and lesbians.

44.

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

45.

Phyllis Schlafly was the author of 26 books on subjects ranging from child care to phonics education.

46.

Phyllis Schlafly wrote a syndicated weekly newspaper column for Creators Syndicate.

47.

Phyllis Schlafly is mentioned extensively in the 7th episode of the 3rd season of the comedy TV series The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, titled "Marvelous Radio".

48.

Phyllis Schlafly is briefly referred to in the Margaret Atwood novel The Testaments.