Phyllis Schlafly

Phyllis Schlafly is best known as a leader of the American fundamentalist conservative movement. A bitter opponent of the ideas espoused by modern feminism, she led the fight, which was ultimately successful, against the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment in 1982. She founded the Eagle Forum, an organization for conservative women, and is a published author and commentator. She was born into a poor family in Missouri, but was able to enter college earlier than most students, graduating from Washington University in St. Louis at age 19. She later received an M.A. in government from Harvard. She joined the Republican party and ran, unsuccessfully, for a Congressional seat in Illinois in 1952. She continued her work in conservative political circles, however, and attracted attention there in 1964 with her book "A Choice, Not An Echo", in which she put forth conservative presidential candidate Barry Goldwater as an alternative to what she called the "corruption and liberalism" of mains