Phyllis Schlafly: life, ideas and books

Life

Phyllis Schlafly was born Phyllis McAlpin Stewart in St. Louis in 1924. She earned a bachelor's degree at Washington University in St. Louis in 1944 and a master's degree in government at Radcliffe in 1945, and she received her law degree from Washington University in 1978. She ran unsuccessfully as the Republican candidate for Congress in Illinois in 1952, 1960 and 1970, and she attended every Republican National Convention from 1960 until her death.

In 1972 she founded the Eagle Forum, and she led it as chair and chief executive until 2016. She died at her home in Ladue, Missouri, in September 2016, aged 92.

Ideas

Schlafly's first national impact came with A Choice Not an Echo (1964), a self-published book in support of Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign that sold in very large numbers and was credited by one Republican official with helping Goldwater win the nomination. In the 1960s and 1970s she wrote on national defence and arms control, and she opposed agreements with the Soviet Union.

She is best known for the STOP ERA campaign, which opposed ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. She argued that the amendment would remove legal protections that women then had, and she defended traditional roles for women, emphasising motherhood and the family as the basic unit of society. She also opposed abortion and same-sex marriage, and she criticised what she called activist judges, particularly on the Supreme Court. Later she opposed globalism and trade agreements.

Major works

• A Choice Not an Echo (1964).
• Strike From Space (1965, co-written).
• The Power of the Positive Woman (1977).
• Books on national defence and arms control, some co-written.

Why conservatives read him

Schlafly is a central figure of the grassroots right, and no account of how the Republican Party moved toward social conservatism in the 1970s is complete without her. The historian Marjorie Spruill credits her 1977 counter-conference with launching the pro-family movement, and the historian Jane Mansbridge argued that her organising delayed ratification of the amendment. Her work shows how volunteers, direct mail and local networks can change a party.

Her views remain contested. Supporters see her as a defender of women who chose family and as a successful organiser, and critics argue that her campaigns harmed the women's movement and that her positions were out of step with changing norms. Her connection to Barry Goldwater and her role in the later rise of Ronald Reagan make her an essential reference for historians of American conservatism, whatever they conclude about her.