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Schlafly's Campaign Against The Equal Rights Amendment

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A rhetorician is ‘a speaker whose words are primarily used to impress or persuade.’ Phyllis Schlafly was a skilled rhetorician. She convinced thousands of middle-class conservative women to oppose the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, which passed in the Senate in 1972. The ERA granted the equality of rights between sexes and forbade discrimination based on sex. The bill was originally supported by both parties, but slowly lost the approval it needed in order to be implemented. By law, 38 states must approve the bill in order for it to be ratified. By 1982, only 35 states approved the amendment, for which Schlafly is credited. In 1972, Schlafly launched her 10 year campaign against the Equal Rights Amendment by forming ‘Stop ERA’,

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