On what grounds does Schlafly argue against equal rights for women? Who is the intended audience of this document? Explain your answer. Put it in context*: What does Schlafly’s speech reveal about important factors limiting the success of the women’s movement?
On what grounds does Schlafly argue against equal rights for women? Who is the intended audience of this document? Explain your answer. Put it in context*: What does Schlafly’s speech reveal about important factors limiting the success of the women’s movement?
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- On what grounds does Schlafly argue against equal rights for women?
- Who is the intended audience of this document? Explain your answer.
- Put it in context*: What does Schlafly’s speech reveal about important factors limiting the success of the women’s movement?
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Phyllis Schlafly.docx
2) The second reason why American women are a privileged
group is that we are the beneficiaries of a tradition of special
respect for women which dates from the Christian Age of
Chivalry. The honor and respect paid to Mary, the Mother of
Christ, resulted in all women, in effect, being put on a pedestal.
This respect for women is not just the lip service that politicians
pay to "God, Motherhood, and the Flag." It is not as some
youthful agitators seem to think just a matter of opening doors
for women, seeing that they are seated first, carrying their
bundles, and helping them in and out of automobiles. Such good
manners are merely the superficial evidences of a total attitude
toward women which expresses itself in many more tangible
ways, such as money.
THE REAL LIBERATION OF WOMEN
(Ca
3) The third reason why American women are so well off is that
the great American free enterprise system has produced
remarkable inventors who have lifted the backbreaking
"women's work" from our shoulders. In other countries and in
other eras, it was truly said that “Man may work from sun to
sun, but woman's work is never done." Other women have
labored every waking hour-preparing food on wood-burning
stoves, making flour, baking bread in stone ovens, spinning
yarn, making clothes, making soap, doing the laundry by hand,
heating irons, making candles for light and fires for warmth, and
trying to nurse their babies through illnesses without medical
care.
The real liberation of women from the backbreaking drudgery of
centuries is the American free enterprise system which
stimulated inventive geniuses to pursue their talents and we all
reap the profits. The great heroes of women's liberation are not
the straggly-haired women on television talk shows and picket
lines, but Thomas Edison who brought the miracle of electricity
to our homes to give light and to run all those labor- saving
devices the equivalent, perhaps, of a half-dozen household
servants for every middle-class American woman. Or Elias
Howe who gave us the sewing machine which resulted in such
an abundance of readymade clothing. Or Clarence Birdseye who
invented the process for freezing foods. Or Henry Ford, who
mass-produced the automobile so that it is within the price-range
of every American, man or woman.
THE FRAUD OF THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT
In the last couple of years, a noisy movement has sprung up
agitating for "women's rights." Suddenly, everywhere we are
afflicted with aggressive females on television talk shows
yapping about how mistreated American women are, suggesting
that marriage has put us in some kind of "slavery," that
housework is menial and degrading, and perish the thought-
that women are discriminated against. New "women's
liberation" organizations are popping up, agitating and
demonstrating, serving demands on public officials, getting wide
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Of all the classes of people who ever lived, the American
woman is the most privileged. We have the most rights and
rewards, and the fewest duties. Our unique status is the result of
a fortunate combination of circumstances.
1) We have the immense good fortune to live in a civilization
which respects the family as the basic unit of society. This
respect is part and parcel of our laws and our customs. It is
based on the fact of life-which no legislation or agitation can
erase that women have babies and men don't.
If you don't like this fundamental difference, you will have to
take up your complaint with God because He created us this
way. The fact that women, not men, have babies is not the fault
of selfish and domineering men, or of the establishment, or of
any clique of conspirators who want to oppress women. It's
simply the way God made us.
Our Judeo-Christian civilization has developed the law and
custom that, since women must bear the physical consequences
of the sex act, men must be required to bear the other
consequences and pay in other ways. These laws and customs
decree that a man must carry his share by physical protection
and financial support of his children and of the woman who
bears his children, and also by a code of behavior which benefits
and protects both the woman and the children.
THE GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT OF WOMEN'S RIGHTS
This is accomplished by the institution of the family. Our respect
for the family as the basic unit of society, which is ingrained in
the laws and customs of our Judeo-Christian civilization, is the
greatest single achievement in the entire history of women's
rights. It assures a woman the most precious and important right
of all the right to keep her own baby and to be supported and
protected in the enjoyment of watching her baby grow and
develop.
The institution of the family is advantageous for women for
many reasons. After all, what do we want out of life? To love
and be loved? Mankind has not discovered a better nest for a
lifetime of reciprocal love. A sense of achievement? A man may
search 30 to 40 years for accomplishment in his profession. A
woman can enjoy real achievement when she is young-by
having a baby. She can have the satisfaction of doing a job well
--and being recognized for it.
Do we want financial security? We are fortunate to have the
great legacy of Moses, the Ten Commandments, especially this
one: "Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long
upon the land." Children are a woman's best social security-
her best guarantee of social benefits such as old age pension,
unemployment compensation, workman's compensation, and
sick leave. The family gives a woman the physical, financial and
emotional security of the home for all her life.
THE FINANCIAL BENEFITS OF CHIVALRY
2) The second reason why American women are a privileged
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