Backlash.

Phyllis Schlafly represented the conservative and traditional American women in the 1970s who feared and rejected the liberal women's liberation movement. Dubbed the "Gloria Steinem of the Right," this Illinois activist organized the Stop ERA lobby in 1972. She argued that social changes were a threat to the family and traditional sex roles.

Congressional Candidate.

Born in Saint Louis in 1924, Schlafly was educated at Washington University and Radcliffe College, worked briefly as a congressional aide, and married a wealthy Illinois lawyer in 1949. Although a self-described housewife and mother of six, she ran for Congress three times, wrote and published several books on conservative issues, worked as a radio commentator, and was editor of the Phyllis Schlafly Newsletter. As a campaigner for Joseph McCarthy and Barry Goldwater, she adopted an early and consistent anti-Communist position, and she even criticized President Nixon and Secretary of State Henry...