Eagle Forum, the grass-roots organization Mrs. Schlafly founded and presided over until her death, said in an online statement that she had died at her home in St. Louis surrounded by family members. The cause of death was not given. She wrote 27 books in support of her views and remained involved in politics through this year, endorsing Donald Trump in March and also attending the Republican National Convention.
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In a statement, the Trump campaign praised Schlafly for “fearlessly battl [ing] globalism and the “kingmakers” on behalf of America’s workers and families, and called her “a patriot, a champion for women, and a symbol of strength”. She backed Trump partly because he was the only candidate talking about illegal immigration, which she said was “the most important issue in the country”. After all, one of the shining moments of her lifetime of activism was blocking the Equal Rights Amendment back in the 1970s. “Her legacy helped conservatives understand they had a choice and were not simply an echo”, Shirley said. “Women already have all the rights that men have”.
She argued the ERA would end women’s privileges, including dependent benefits under Social Security, separate public bathrooms and exemption from the draft.
She married Mr. Schlafly, a lawyer and devout Catholic, in 1949 and began life as a stay-at-home mother in Alton, Illinois.
She campaigned against Communism and is credited with creating the political climate that helped Ronald Reagan become president.
Phyllis Schlafly, the USA conservative icon and grass-roots activist for traditional family roles who led the successful campaign against the Equal Rights Amendment, died on Monday.
“Phyllis was one of the only conservatives that supported the best leaders in the fathers” rights movement in the 1990s.
“In fact, Schlafly is one of the most accomplished and influential people in America”. Phyllis Schlafly worked diligently to prevent the Equal Rights Amendment and has been nearly exclusively credited with preventing it from being ratified.
She challenged feminist thinking that said housewives lived in “a comfortable concentration camp” and women were “victims of patriarchy” who needed government to solve their problems.
According to Federal Election Commission reports, a political action committee bearing her name was registered by Ed Martin, the president of the Eagle Forum. In a 1978 appearance at the IL capitol she was accompanied by backers bearing loaves of home-made bread. The constitutional amendment came close to passage when both chambers of Congress passed it in 1972 and 35 states ratified it.
“Hel-ll-loo, John!” she said upon answering the phone at her St. Louis, Mo. home, her Midwestern twang as unmistakably sharp as always.
She graduated Phi Beta Kappa in three years, then earned a master’s degree in political science at Harvard University’s Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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Schlafly also built a reputation as a strident anti-Communist and opponent of arms control treaties. It is hard to find a conservative who has disagreed with her on a major issue and still remained viable. Angered by the cultural transformations of the 1960s, beginning with the 1962 Supreme Court ruling prohibiting state-sponsored prayer in public schools, her “little old ladies in tennis shoes”, as some called them, went from ringing doorbells for Goldwater to serving as foot soldiers for the “Reagan revolution”.
