Phyllis Schlafy's STOP ERA

The opponents viewed the traditional role of Housewife as the most fulfilling job a woman could have; Schlafly herself called the American housewife a “domestic economist” (46). Those involved with Schlafly’s STOP ERA campaign saw the proposed amendment as a way to force women to be more like men by pressuring them to take jobs outside the home and provide for themselves themselves rather than be financially supported solely by their husbands. Reverend Jerry Falwell once said, “God Almighty created men and women biologically different and with differing needs and roles. Good husbands who are godly men are good leaders. Their wives and children want to follow them” (B5). According to this man, God wanted women to be subject to their husbands. Ratification of the ERA could allow women to no longer be bound by their husbands, therefore upsetting God and his idea of what a family should be. As simple as it sounds, extending the Constitution to women through the ERA, led the religious to oppose it because of the fear it would create disruption within the traditional Judeo-Christian family structure.

Though the Equal Rights Amendment had various dedicated supporters working to pass it, it also had several Anti-Equal Rights Amendment working to make sure it DID NOT pass. One key figure in this Anti-Equal Rights Amendment was Phyllis Schlafly. Schlafly argued that the passing of the Equal Rights Amendment would cause there to be a boom in the creation of unisex bathrooms. She argued that bathrooms

Unsatisfied with the result of 1966 Conference delegates prohibiting the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) from legally enforcing its mandate to end sex discrimination, the author of The Feminine Mystique Betty Friedan gathered the first African-American female Episcopal priest Pauli Murray, the first Black woman that ran for president of United States, and several others for conference in a hotel then officially formed NOW. The feminist leaders promoted the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in the 1970s. The amendment was approve by the Congress in 1972 then immediately ratified by 28 states. However there was another campaign promoting to stop the ERA led by Phyllis Schlafly, therefore result in only 35 states ratified the amendment with 3 states short to make it into the law. Due to the challenge of getting the ERA ratified, the NOW is officially formed under the disturbance theory and bargaining for the disadvantaged women of the time. Till today the organization is still actively lobbying legislatures and media for feminist issues.

Throughout history, leaders of political and social movements have designed slogans and catchphrases to mobilize ordinary citizens into political and social activists. Historically, activists such as Nelson Mandela, Mohandas Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and countless others have, in their speeches and writings, created a perfect pairing of words that persists in the mind of the listener. Two such activists of the Twentieth Century were Margaret Sanger and Betty Friedan. Friedan and Sanger greatly influenced the women’s rights movement; despite both being feminists, however, their personal beliefs in terms of other civil rights movements often fell at opposite ends of the spectrum. Both Friedan and Sanger popularized phrases which empowered their respective followers and similar activists to push back against a system designed to repress them; the phrases that the two activists used, however, reflected their different brands of activism and revealed their differences of opinion on who mattered both for and in the Women’s Rights Movement. : Sanger with the phrase “birth control” and Friedan with the term “feminine mystique.”

If they were, it would duplicate the 14th amendment.” They claim the movement has other intentions than just women rights. The last anti-ERA quote I found stated, the ERA “ends social security benefits for spouses according to Sex Bias in the U.S Code, a book written by U.S Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the ERA will change 800 federal laws including the elimination of social security benefits for wives and widows.” (Pages 206, 211-212). This just means that if the ERA is adopted then there will be major changes for America and its

Feminists at this time had a feeling of empowerment with a selfish attitude putting their needs over everything else. In Document A Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique is a strong example of this. It states “ once she begins to see through the delusions of the feminine mystique and realizes her husband nor her children, nor the things in her house, nor sex, nor being like all the other women, can give her a self-she often finds the solution much easier than she anticipated.” Feminists believed their roles as wives and mothers were not enough and “unfulfilling” and they deserved more. This idea also threatened American democracy and put pressure on the American Government. In Document F the percentage of Women’s jobs are shown, “75% of Women are in routine clerical, sales, or factory jobs or they are household workers, cleaning women” and also “There is no civil rights movement to speak for Women, as there has been for Negroes and other victims of discrimination, The National Organization for Women must therefore begin to speak.” Feminists believed they needed to put pressure on the Government like the African Americans did to get what they

The U.S. women’s movement had its beginnings in 1848 when Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott called the Seneca Falls Convention in New York to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman (Women’s History in the U.S....). Over time, this inspired many women to stand up for their own beliefs and for the better for women in future generations. During World War I, the high birth rates led to food and supply shortages, and disease which mainly affected those in poverty (Putting Margaret Sanger’s Ideas in Context). At the time, a woman’s life revolved around bringing food home and onto the table which became an issue with the lack of supplies and the best foods would be given to men (Comstockery in America). As a nurse visiting, Margaret Sanger witnessed and met immigrant working mothers who were deeply impacted by unexpected pregnancies and botched miscarriages (Amory). Margaret Sanger violated the Comstock Act of 1873 of 1873 because she wanted to advocate women’s rights which resulted in a conflict between Sanger and the those against her ideas, and the laws that suppressed her from advocating. As a result, as a compromise of the amendment of the Comstock Act after she gained support from her article and supporters which resulted in Planned Parenthood, the ability to distribute contraceptives, and a new found support for women to have more control over their lives.

In this assignment I will evaluate and consider the arguments of the women’s right movement in the 1960’s and 1970’s by critically analyzing the differences and similarities between the liberal and radical feminists, the Equal Rights Act, similarities and differences between those who supported and opposed the Equal Rights Act, working class women who opposed and also surged the feminist movement, different key events such as the National Organization of Women that influenced the development of a women’s right movement, and the long range consequences of the modern women’s right movement.

The Equal Rights Amendment began its earliest discussions in 1920. These discussions took place immediately after two-thirds of the states approved women's suffrage. The nineteenth century was intertwined with several feminist movements such as abortion, temperance, birth control and equality. Many lobbyists and political education groups formed in these times. One such organization is the Eagle Forum, who claims to lead the pro-family movement. On the opposite side of the coin is The National Organization for Women, or NOW, which takes action to better the position of women in society. Feminism is the most powerful force for change in our time. The Equal Rights Amendment has been a

During the process of trying to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment there were certain people who were huge supporters of the amendment and others who were eager to prevent it from happening. During the 1970’s and 1980’s, there were many different feminist groups in New Orleans, such as the National Organization for Women or NOW, the Independent Women’s Organization or IWO, and the Women’s Liberation Coalition or WLC. NOW and IWO were categorized to be more of the liberal groups, whereas the WLC was the more radical collective group. In 1966, feminist Betty Friedan co-founded NOW. This organization was an aspire for women, to bring them “into the mainstream of American society now [in] fully equal partnership with men.” Friedan was also homophobic. She referred to lesbians as the “lavender menace”, and warned NOW chapters not

On January 24th, 1977 Indiana became what would be the final state to ratify the ERA. On July 10th, 1977 Alice Paul, who had been so instrumental in the cause of Suffrage and the ERA died at the age of 92. At the time of her death thirty-five states had voted to ratify. One of the states that ratified the ERA in one chamber, but not the other was North Carolina. Writing in the Spring 1978 edition of Signs Theodore S. Arrington and Patricia A. Kyle break down the debate. Circulating a questionnaire, they found that men most supportive of the ERA were “liberal activist Democrats” and anti-ERA men were “Republican activists”. By a vote of only three votes in 1975 in North Carolina. The culture among Republican supporters of the late 70s had shifted away from those who first embraced the ERA in 1940. While the New England states, Rust Belt and Pacific Northwest had been uniform in their support for the ERA, the only State of the former Confederacy to ratify the ERA was Texas, which was an early supporter of the ERA, ratifying in 1972. Also in 1972 an Illinois Republican activist, Phyllis Schlafly would begin her crusade against the ERA in a February 1972 article in her eponymously named Phyllis Schlafly Report newsletter entitled: “What’s Wrong with ‘Equal

There was a time where women were hardly acknowledged as anything other than a housewife. From the year of 1848 to the year of 1920, dawned the era of the original Women’s rights movement of America. Eventually, the movement was modernized. A very influential woman in particular, named Betty Friedan, took action during this modern movement. Betty Friedan changed how her generation and future generations view women’s rights by advancing the Women’s Rights movement, by advocating for women being involved in politics and by leading women into thinking they were more than society wanted them to be.

Conservatives in the 1970s and 1980s were responding to many events and policies. Many were responding to the numerous Supreme Court decisions. They did not support decisions such as banning prayers in public education and the legalization of abortion and pornography. Conservatives like Jerry Falwell demanded for America to return to its traditional values, and blamed numerous factors from television to the public-school system (Foner, VOF, 312). In addition, Conservatives stood against the Equal Rights Amendment, the feminist revolution, and the homosexual revolution. Conservative women like Phyllis Schlafly successfully defeated the Equal Rights Amendment. Schlafly argued that the amendment will only make it harder for women, forcing them

Phyllis Wheatley was one of the most iconic figures in the American Revolution on the side of the colonists because she was the first black female to be published in America. This was very important because it was a kickstart in generating authentic American culture and a lot of it. Phyllis Wheatley was born in Africa and brought over to be sold in the slave trade. She was purchased by John Wheatley and unlike other slave owners, John and his family committed to educating Phyllis just as they would their own son and daughter. Mrs. Wheatley was teaching Phyllis literature, theology, mythology, English, Latin, Greek and ancient history by the time she was 10. Wheatley was not necessarily a physical threat to the British powers per say but what she stood for definitely made a mark in the colonists’ views of freedom. The basis for the American Revolution was that the colonists wanted freedom from Britain. They wanted to govern themselves and live how they wanted without interference from an English power that was not even on the same land as they were. The colonists were fighting for their dignity in individual freedom and Phillis Wheatley was reinforcing that by transforming the idea into words to form poetry. Phillis Wheatley achieved many great things by being an anomaly of the slave trade and because of that, proved to be an influential figure to many leaders of the

After women got the right to vote in 1920, the most devoted members of the women's movement focused on gaining other rights for women. Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, who had created the National Women's Party in 1916 to work for women's suffrage, turned their efforts toward passing the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). This amendment, which would make all forms of discrimination based on sex illegal, did not receive significant support and never passed. Arguments against the ERA, advocated by social reformers, such as Florence Kelley and Jane Addams, along with administrators in the Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor, were that the ERA would, in reality, eliminate protective legislation for women, harming working-class women instead of helping them.