Phyllis Schlafly

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Lore & Background

Phyllis Schlafly was born Phyllis McAlpin Stewart in St. Louis and raised in a Catholic girls' school during the Great Depression. She earned a Bachelor of Arts from Washington University in St. Louis in 1944 and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, a Master of Arts in government from Radcliffe in 1945, and a Juris Doctor from Washington University School of Law in 1978. During World War II, she worked as a ballistics technician and gunner instructor at the largest ammunition plant in the world. She ran for Congress twice as a Republican in Illinois (1952 and 1970), losing both times—in 1952 in the Republican primary and in 1970 to a Democratic challenger. Schlafly gained national attention with her self-published 1964 book A Choice Not an Echo, a polemic supporting Barry Goldwater and condemning more liberal East Coast Republicans personified by Nelson Rockefeller. More than three million copies were sold or distributed for free. She was a member of the John Birch Society. In 1972, she founded the Eagle Forum and organized the STOP ERA campaign, arguing the amendment 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 the military draft. Her efforts are widely credited with defeating the ERA, which achieved ratification in only 35 states.

Reader's Guide

Phyllis Schlafly's significance lies in her role as a central figure in the conservative movement of the late 20th century. Through the Eagle Forum and her STOP ERA campaign, she mobilized grassroots opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment, which had initially been ratified by 28 of the required 38 states by 1972. Seven more states ratified after she began organizing opposition, but another five rescinded their ratifications. Political scientist Jane J. Mansbridge concluded that the amendment would likely have been ratified by 1975 or 1976 without Schlafly's early and effective organizing. Schlafly also helped shift the Republican Party to the right by promoting pro-family values and opposing feminism, as seen in the 1977 Pro-Life, Pro-Family Rally that drew over 15,000 people to the Astro Arena. Her legacy includes a lasting impact on American gender politics and the conservative movement's focus on family values.

Did You Know?

• During World War II, Schlafly worked as a ballistics technician and gunner instructor at the largest ammunition plant in the world.
• Her self-published book A Choice Not an Echo sold or distributed more than three million copies.
• She attended every Republican National Convention from 1952 through 1960, and again from 1968 until her death in 2016.
• The John Birch Society distributed 300,000 copies of A Choice Not an Echo in California prior to the June 2, 1964, GOP primary.
• Schlafly earned a Juris Doctor from Washington University School of Law in 1978, decades after her earlier degrees.

Roots and Education

Phyllis McAlpin Stewart entered the world on August 15, 1924, in St. Louis, into a family with deep Midwestern and Scottish roots. Her great-grandfather Stewart, a Presbyterian, emigrated from Scotland to New York in 1851 and moved westward through Canada before settling in Michigan. Her grandfather, Andrew F. Stewart, was a master mechanic with the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway. Her father, John Bruce Stewart, was a machinist and salesman of industrial equipment, principally for Westinghouse, and was granted a patent in 1944 for a rotary engine. The Great Depression struck hard: her father faced long-term unemployment beginning in 1932, and her mother, Odile Stewart (née Dodge), went back to work as a librarian and teacher to support the family and maintain Phyllis in a Catholic girls' school. She had one younger sister, also named Odile. Academically, Phyllis showed early promise. She began at Maryville College before transferring to Washington University in St. Louis, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1944 and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. A year later, after attending Harvard, she completed a Master of Arts in government at Radcliffe. During the war years she served as a ballistics gunner and technician at what she described as the largest ammunition plant in the world. She earned a Juris Doctor from the Washington University School of Law in 1978.

A Lifelong Campaign in Republican Politics

From the mid-1940s onward, Schlafly embedded herself in the machinery of the Republican Party. In 1946 she became a researcher at the American Enterprise Institute and worked in the successful U.S. House campaign of Republican Claude I. Bakewell. Her first bid for Congress came in 1952, when she won the Republican primary in Illinois's heavily Democratic 24th congressional district over John T. R. Godlewski by 18,793 votes (61.14%) to 11,943 (38.86%), but fell to incumbent Democrat Charles Melvin Price in the general election, winning 63,778 votes (35.20%) to Price's 117,408 votes (64.80%). She delivered the keynote address at the June 1952 Illinois state convention of the Republican Party, where she accused the Truman administration of 'demoralizing our children by bad examples, drafting our men, and confiscating our family income.' She attended every Republican National Convention from 1952 until her death, and in 1952 she endorsed U.S. Senator Robert A. Taft for the presidential nomination. In 1957 she and her husband played a major role in writing the American Bar Association's Report on Communist Tactics, Strategy, and Objectives, which Donald T. Critchlow says 'became not only one of the most widely read documents ever produced by the ABA, it was probably the single most widely read publication of the grassroots anticommunist movement.' She lost a second congressional race in 1960 to Price, this time by 144,560 votes (72.22%) to 55,620 (27.79%). In 1967 she was defeated for the presidency of the National Federation of Republican Women against the more moderate candidate Gladys O'Donnell of California. Her final electoral attempt came in 1970, when she lost to Democratic incumbent George E. Shipley by 91,158 votes (53.97%) to 77,762 (46.04%), after which she never again sought public office.

A Choice Not an Echo and the Goldwater Breakthrough

Schlafly's national breakthrough arrived through a self-published polemic, A Choice Not an Echo (1964), which she wrote in support of Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign, condemning more liberal East Coast Republicans personified by Nelson Rockefeller. The book sold or was distributed free in a run exceeding three million copies. Its impact was most dramatic in California's winner-take-all Republican primary, where the John Birch Society quietly dispersed an estimated 300,000 copies before the June 2, 1964, GOP primary. Gardiner Johnson, Republican National Committee for California, stated that the distribution of her book in California was a major factor in Goldwater's winning the nomination. Schlafly had been a member of the John Birch Society; founder Robert Welch Jr. referred to her as a 'very loyal' member. She later quit and denied she had been a member because she feared her association with the organization would damage her book's reputation. By mutual agreement her books were not mentioned in the society's magazine, American Opinion, and the distribution of her books by the society was handled so as to mask their involvement. Critics called the book a conspiracy theory about 'secret kingmakers' controlling the Republican Party. Beyond the Goldwater campaign, Schlafly co-authored books on national defense and remained a vocal critic of arms-control agreements with the Soviet Union, cementing her identity as a hardline conservative voice on both domestic and foreign policy.

The Eagle Forum and a Decades-Long Activist Career

In 1972, Schlafly founded the Eagle Forum, a conservative political interest group, and remained its chair and CEO until her death on September 5, 2016, at the age of ninety-two, while staying active in conservative causes. Through the Eagle Forum and her broader public work, she mounted sustained opposition to feminism, gay rights, and abortion, and she became one of the most visible opponents of the Equal Rights Amendment's ratification. She organized the STOP ERA campaign, arguing the amendment 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 (the military draft). Her efforts are widely credited with defeating the ERA: political scientist Jane J. Mansbridge concluded that 'the Amendment would have been ratified by 1975 or 1976 had it not been for Phyllis Schlafly's early and effective effort to organize potential opponents.' At the 1977 National Women's Conference in Houston, Schlafly's anti-feminists organized a counter-conference, the Pro-Life, Pro-Family Rally, which drew an overflow of over 15,000 people to the Astro Arena and announced the beginning of a pro-family movement. She never held elected office after 1970, yet her influence on the conservative movement persisted through the Eagle Forum's advocacy, her published writings, and her decades of convention attendance and grassroots mobilization.