In celebration of our national heritage, we continue our Pride in America series by honoring Phyllis Schlafly Esq., a fierce advocate of traditional family values in the 20th Century.
Schlafly was born August 15, 1924, in St. Louis, Missouri. She earned a scholarship to Maryville College but only attended for a short time before transferring to Washington University of St. Louis.
In 1944, she earned her bachelor’s degree in political science and completed a master’s degree in government from Radcliffe College (now part of Harvard University) in 1945. Schlafly took a job as a research librarian, married Fred Schlafly in 1949, and the two moved to the suburbs of Illinois, where they raised six children.
As devout Catholics, Phyllis and Fred believed their faith required them to be engaged in their community, state, and culture. In 1952, Phyllis ran for U.S. Congress and won the Republican primary. She famously posed for the local newspaper cooking breakfast the next morning, emphasizing her dedication to her family despite her victory. Unfortunately, Phyllis narrowly lost the general election to a prominent Democrat later that year.
Soon after, she accepted a role at the Daughters of the American Revolution in Illinois and served as the president of the Illinois Federation of Republican Women. She began traveling around the country speaking on Christianity, the importance of traditional family values, and the threat of communism. Additionally, she hosted a radio show where she discussed national security and the dangers of the United Nations.
In 1964, she became the First Vice President of the National Federation of Republican Women and authored her first book, “A Choice Not an Echo.” By the late 1960s, she launched her own newsletter titled “The Phyllis Schlafly Report,” where she specifically attacked moderate philosophy in the Party.
After the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) passed Congress in 1972, Phyllis’s life’s work pivoted toward encouraging states not to ratify. She saw the ERA as a threat to freedom and argued that much of the United States’ strength comes from the sanctity of the traditional family. Phyllis declared war on feminism and formed STOP ERA, gaining support from conservatives across the nation.
In 1975, she enrolled in Washington University Law School and graduated with her degree in 1978. Later in 1975, Phyllis formed the Eagle Forum, which absorbed the STOP ERA and focused on issues such as the traditional family, education, nuclear arms, and national defense.
Phyllis believed the traditional family is the foundation of a strong nation, and the LGBTQ movement, abortion, feminism, and communism were all on equal footing regarding the threat they posed to the United States.
Phyllis’s life's work can be summarized as championing family values and Biblical gender roles as a mechanism of keeping America strong. She loved God, her family, and her country. One of Schlafly’s final political acts before passing away was endorsing Donald J. Trump for president in 2016.
Her life and legacy remind us of how critical family values are to the preservation of liberty.
