Social policies of Phyllis Schlafly
It has been said that Phyllis Schlafly's social policies are a response to feminism. According to feminist Rosalind P. Petchesky, "The New Right", which includes Phyllis Schlafly and her political group the Eagle Forum, "must be understood as a response to feminist ideas and to their strong impact, in the 1970s, on popular consciousness". During the 1970s, while Schlafly worked against the Equal Rights Amendment and pro-ERA feminists, she formed a definitive stance on women's rights in direct opposition to feminist views of the time. Development of anti-feminist policies Schlafly's social policies, especially those towards women, were largely formed during her crucial years as one of the main leaders of the anti-Equal Rights Amendment ("ERA") opposition front. Schlafly's policies were in dispute with those of feminists like Betty Friedan; for instance, Schlafly argued that the ERA was "a direct threat to the protection that mothers and working women enjoyed in American society". During the 20th century, including during her anti-ERA campaign, Schlafly was able to spread and implement her policies through her personal activities such as radio broadcasts, interviews on public television, circulation of her monthly newsletter, and organization and mobilization of churches and local communities. These activities "unleashed an intense and seemingly irrepressible culture war" during the volatile 1970s and early 1980s. In these crucial years, the New Right implemented its policies as "opposition to...the Equal Rights Amendment...[was] used to galvanize a substantial segment of voters, funds, and resources on behalf of right-wing candidates and against candidates associated with liberalism and feminism". Schlafly also relied on her Eagle Forum, the "alternative to women's lib", to implement her anti-ERA social policies. While Schlafly was working against the ERA, both STOP ERA and the Eagle Forum were held together by "Schlafly's personal leadership plus their organ of communication, the Phyllis Schlafly Report, which each month presented news and new arguments against ERA, kept a running tally of votes by the states, and advised on campaign strategies and tactics". Modern development and implementation of Schlafly's social policies Schlafly's influence didn't end with the ERA; the Eagle Forum continues to be a medium for the development and implementation of Schlafly's social policies, including her policies regarding women's rights. In 2005, the Eagle Forum included "a membership of 50,000 women who [could] be mobilized for conservative causes and candidates". Schlafly's radio broadcasts and her monthly Phyllis Schlafly Report, which includes "essays on politics, education, national defense, feminism, the judiciary, and immigration", still operate (although since her death in 2016, the Phyllis Schlafly Report has been replaced by the Eagle Forum Report), and are important devices in Schlafly's attempted realization of her social policies. Her main focus continues to be "issues related to sexuality and the family...not only on a rhetorical level, but also on the level of mass organizing, intraparty and legislative struggles, and organizational alliances". Schlafly's writings Schlafly has also nationally published several books detailing her anti-feminist stance and her social policies. Those that particularly pertain to women's rights and Schlafly's social policies