| Phyllis Schlafly | |
|---|---|
Phyllis Schlafly in 2011 |
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| Born | Phyllis McAlpin Stewart August 15, 1924 St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.[1] |
| Occupation | Political activist |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Spouse | John Fred Schlafly Jr. (deceased) |
| Children | John, Bruce, Roger, Liza, Andrew, Anne |
Phyllis McAlpin Stewart Schlafly ( /ˈfɪlɨs ˈʃlæfli/; born August 15, 1924) is a Constitutional lawyer and an American politically conservative activist and author who founded the Eagle Forum. She is known for her opposition to modern feminism ideas and for her campaign against the proposed Equal Rights Amendment. Her self-published book, A Choice, Not An Echo, was published in 1964 from her home in Alton, Illinois, across the Mississippi River from her native St. Louis. She formed Pere Marquette Publishers company. She has co-authored books on national defense and was highly critical of arms-control agreements with the former Soviet Union.[2]
Schlafly founded the Eagle Forum in the 1970s and the Eagle Forum Education & Legal Defense Fund, St. Louis. As of 2011[update], she is still the president of the organizations, and also has a presence on the lecture circuit. Since 1967, she has published a newsletter, the Phyllis Schlafly Report.
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Schlafly's great-grandfather Stewart, a Presbyterian, came from Scotland to New York in 1851 and moved westward through Canada before settling in Michigan.[3] Her grandfather, Andrew F. Stewart, was a master mechanic with the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway.[4] 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.[5] He was granted a patent in 1944 for a rotary engine.[6]
Schlafly's mother was the daughter of attorney Ernest C. Dodge. She attended college through graduate school and worked as a teacher at Hosmer Hall private school for girls in St. Louis.[7] With her father’s legal business suffering during the Great Depression and her husband out of work, she worked as a librarian and a school teacher to support her family.
Phyllis' husband, attorney John Fred Schlafly, Jr., came from a well-to-do St. Louis family. His grandfather, August, immigrated in 1854 from Switzerland. In 1876, his older brother married Catharine Hubert, the daughter of a local businessman.[8] Shortly thereafter, the three brothers founded the firm of Schlafly Bros., which dealt in groceries, Queensware (dishes made by Wedgwood), hardware, and agricultural implements.[9] They later sold that business and concentrated on banking and other businesses that made them wealthy.[6]
On October 20, 1949, Phyllis married lawyer John Fred Schlafly, Jr. and remained married until he died in 1993. They moved to Alton, Illinois and had six children: John, Bruce, Roger, Liza, Andrew, and Anne.[10] In 1992, their eldest son, John, was outed as gay by Queer Week magazine.[11][12] Schlafly acknowledged that John is gay, but stated that he embraces his mother's views.[11][13] Their son Andrew founded Conservapedia, a conservative open-source encyclopedia, after voicing concerns that Wikipedia had a liberal bias.[14] She is the aunt of St. Louis brewery owner Thomas Schlafly. [15]
Schlafly was christened Phyllis McAlpin Stewart and brought up as a Roman Catholic in St. Louis, Missouri, where she was born. According to one report, during the Depression, Schlafly's father went into 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.[16]
Schlafly began college early and worked as a model for a time. She earned her A.B. Phi Beta Kappa from Washington University, in St. Louis in 1944. She received a Master of Arts degree in Government from Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1945. In one of her books, Strike From Space (1965), Schlafly notes that during WWII she worked briefly as "a ballistics gunner and technician at the largest ammunition plant in the world." In 1978, she earned a J.D. from Washington University Law School in St. Louis.[5]
In 1946, Schlafly became a researcher for the American Enterprise Institute and worked in the successful United States House of Representatives campaign of Claude I. Bakewell.[17]
In 1952, Schlafly ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a Republican in a Democratic district. 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. 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.[18] Schlafly attended the 1960 Republican National Convention, and helped lead a revolt of "moral conservatives" against Richard Nixon's stance (as the New York Times puts it) "against segregation and discrimination."[19]
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.[20][21]
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.
Schlafly became the most outspoken opponent of the Equal Rights Amendment during the 1970s as the organizer of the "Stop the ERA" . . . an acronym for "Stop Taking our Privileges", because Schlafly argues the ERA would take away 'privileges', including "dependent wife" benefits under Social Security and exemption from Selective Service registration.[22]
In 1972, when Schlafly began her efforts against the Equal Rights Amendment, it had already been ratified by 28 of the necessary 38 states. She organized a campaign to oppose further ratification. Five more states ratified ERA after Schlafly began her opposition campaign; however, five states rescinded their ratifications. The last state to ratify was Indiana, where then State Senator Wayne Townsend cast the tie-breaking vote for ratification in January 1977. In opposing the Equal Rights Amendment, Schlafly argued that "the ERA would lead to women being drafted by the military and to public unisex bathrooms."[23] Her views were opposed by the pro-ERA faction, which led by the National Organization for Women (NOW) and the ERAmerica coalition.[24] To counter Schlafly's Stop ERA campaign, the Homemakers' Equal Rights Association was formed.[25]
The Equal Rights Amendment was narrowly defeated, despite having achieved ratification in 35 of the 38 states needed.[5]
Critics of Schlafly have emphasized an apparent contradiction between her advocacy against equal rights and her role as a working professional. Gloria Steinem and author Pia de Solenni, among others, have noted what they consider 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.[26][27][20] In her review of Schlafly's Feminist Fantasies, de Solenni writes that "Schlafly's discussion reveals a paradox. She was able to have it all: family and career. And she did it by fighting those who said they were trying to get it all for her.…Happiness resulted from being a wife and mother and working with her husband to reach their goals."
Schlafly defends her activism by saying that you can have it all, but not all at once. She raised her children, then got into politics (which she refers to as a hobby see: http://www.eagleforum.org/misc/bio.html) and went to law school. Source: The Flipside of Feminism
Schlafly told Time magazine in 1978, "I have cancelled speeches whenever my husband thought that I had been away from home too much."[28]
In March 2007, Schlafly said in a speech at Bates College, "By getting married, the woman has consented to sex, and I don't think you can call it rape."[29]
On March 30, 2006, Schlafly provided an interview for The New York Times in which she 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 paper diapers.[30]
She has called Roe vs 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".[31]
According to an article in the March 28, 2007 edition of the Washington Post, "New Drive Afoot to Pass Equal Rights Amendment," Schlafly was then working towards the defeat of a new version of the Equal Rights Amendment: "Today, she warns lawmakers that its passage would compel courts to approve same-sex marriages and deny Social Security benefits for housewives and widows."[23]
In college in 1945, Schlafly applauded the establishment of the United Nations. Over the years, however, she has disdained the UN. On the 50th anniversary of the United Nations in 1995, Schlafly referred to "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 U.S. 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.[32]
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."[33]
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.[34]
In 1961, Schlafly wrote that "[arms control] will not stop Red aggression any more than disarming our local police will stop murder, theft, and rape."[35]
Schlafly has been 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.[36] 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."[37]
Schlafly did not endorse a candidate for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, but she has spoken out against Mike Huckabee, whom she says as governor left the Republican Party in Arkansas "in shambles". She has hosted at the Eagle Forum U.S. Representative Tom Tancredo of Colorado, known for his opposition to illegal immigration. Before his election she criticised Barack Obama as "an elitist who worked with words".[38]
Schlafly opposes 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."[39] Linking the Equal Rights Amendment to LGBT rights and same-sex marriage played a role in Schlafly's opposition to the ERA.[40][41]
Schlafly endorsed Michele Bachmann in December 2011 for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, citing Bachmann's work against "ObamaCare," deficit spending, and "traditional values."[42]
On May 1, 2008, the Board of Trustees of Washington University in St. Louis announced that Schlafly would be presented 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.[43] Fourteen university law professors wrote in a complaint letter that Schlafly's career demonstrated "anti-intellectualism in pursuit of a political agenda."[44] While the Board of 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 feel the selection of Schlafly was a mistake.[45][46] Katha Pollitt of The Nation magazine criticized the decision, decrying Schlafly as a "promoter of innumerable crackpot far-right conspiracy theories" and an opponent of women's rights.[47]
In the days leading up to the commencement ceremony, Washington University Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton explained the university’s Board of 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.[48] | ” |
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.[49] 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."[50] In addition, she stated after the ceremony that the protesters were "juvenile" and that, "I'm not sure they're mature enough to graduate."[49] As planned, Schlafly did not give any speech during the commencement ceremony, nor did any of the other honorees except for commencement speaker Chris Matthews.[51]
Schlafly is the author of 21 books on subjects ranging from child care to phonics education. She writes a syndicated weekly newspaper column.[52]
Schlafly's published works include: