Phyllis Schlafly, Anti-Feminist Leader, Born
Phyllis Schlafly, a conservative lawyer who emerged as the leading anti-feminist activist in the 1970s, was born on this day.
She worked primarily through her organization the Eagle Forum, and is credited with leading the successful effort in the 1970s to stop ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the Constitution, which would have granted equality to women (see January 18, 1977).
Shlafly began her political activism as a strong anti-Communist, and first came to prominence in 1964 with a book savagely attacking President Lyndon Johnson in the 1964 presidential election.
See and hear Schlafly oppose the ERA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWyv5Fw0JSk
Learn more: Carol Felsenthal, The Sweetheart of the Silent Majority: The Biography of Phyllis Schlafly (1981)
Visit the Eagle Forum web site.