Phyllis Schlafly, the “Mother” of the Modern Conservative Movement, Resurrected in Hulu’s “Mrs. America”

April 17th 2020

Phyllis Schlafly (Gage Skidmore)

By Bill Berkowitz

Phyllis Schlafly, the polarizing ultra-conservative religious right activist, made her bones as the public face of the STOP ERA movement during the 1970s. And she, along with a extensive cast of conservative think tanks, activists and anti-feminists from across the country did just that; they stopped the Equal Rights Amendment from becoming the law of the land. But Schlafly was more then a one-hit wonder. She became a conservative icon and has been dubbed the “mother” of the modern conservative movement. Her organizing prowess as demonstrated by STOP ERA, was just one of her extraordinary political accomplishments.

Nearly four years after her death at 92, Schlafly, is the central character of Mrs. America, a nine-part FX on Hulu series created by Dahvi Waller, which gives viewers a Mad Manish window into the politics of the 1970s, with a close look at  Schlafly’s STOP ERA (Equal Rights Amendment) movement. (NOTE: I am not a subscriber to Hulu and have not seen the recently-released first three episodes of the mini-series.) In her 1991 study of the anti-feminist movement in America, titled “Who Speaks for American Women? The Future of Anti-Feminism,” author Susan Marshall credited Schlafly with being the most important figure of the anti-feminist movement.

Critics seem to agree that the FX on Hulu series’ performances are dazzling: Cate Blanchett, who also is an executive producer of the series, plays Schlafly, Rose Byrne plays Gloria Steinem, the influential feminist and creator of Ms. magazine, Uzo Aduba as Shirley Chisholm, the African American presidential candidate who found much of second-wave feminism to be, at best, condescending to her candidacy, Margo Martindale as New York congresswoman Bella Abzug, and Tracey Ullman as influential author Betty Friedan. 

Interestingly, as Buzzfeed’s Pier Dominguez recently wrote, “The show’s  reception follows a pattern recently established by the movie Bombshell, in which fellow Academy Award winner Charlize Theron both coproduced and starred in, garnering her Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for her transformation into Fox news anchor Megyn Kelly. Both actors are relatively vocal liberals who have spoken about how they had to put politics aside to really dig in to their portrayals”.

[I explored similar issues in a piece titled “While the New Film “Bombshell” Exposes Fox and Roger Ailes, It Lets Gretchen Carlson and Megyn Kelly off the Hook,”.]

Mrs. America, widely recognized as an acting tour de force, is being criticized by both conservatives and liberals. Perhaps this should not be surprising when controversial political eras are reimagined during this time of extreme polarization.

“With the revived push for the Equal Rights Amendment has come a revived push to cast Phyllis Schlafly as a historical villain. These are revisionist efforts informed by ideological bias more than fact,” Emily Jashinsky wrote at thefederalist.com.

Buzzfeed’s Dominguez claims that “the series’ supposedly complex depiction of its conservative white protagonist in some ways shies away from Schlafly’s most unpalatable beliefs.” While it “admirably attempts to make the messy politics of the 1970s — including the difficulties of coalition building on the left and the dangers of fake news — speak to our current moment…. it pulls its punches about its right-wing protagonist’s history of racism, ultimately making the show’s dramatic stakes and conclusion less powerful and relevant than it could have been, and more of a TV history version of Sean Spicer on Dancing With the Stars.”

For example, “In 1960,” New York magazine’s Jonathan Chait wrote after her death in 2016, she “led the conservative faction in a revolt against a platform plank opposing segregation and racial discrimination in voting and housing.”

In waging the battle against the ERA, Schlafly came up with a bunch of derogatory nicknames for feminist leaders and authors, using terms like “liberal libbers,” “angry battle-axes,” and  “radical commie lesbians,” to describe such pro-ERA activists as three-term Representative Bella Abzug, author Betty Friedan, and journalist/activist Gloria Steinem. Echoes of our current president!

The organization Schlafly is most identified with was the Alton, Illinois-based Eagle Forum. She also wrote more then a dozen books on topics ranging from family and feminism to nuclear strategy; she published newsletters, including The Phyllis Schlafiy Report and Education Reporter; was a widely syndicated columnist; made daily radio commentaries, heard on more than 250 stations; and was an attorney.

Despite her sharp focus on domestic issues, Schlafly was also an avid anti-communist crusader and a prime player in laying the groundwork for the cold war. Her 1964 book A Choice, Not an Echo, attacked the then-liberal wing of the Republican Party and she was an early supporter of Senator Barry Goldwater, helping him win the 1964 Republican Party nomination for the presidency.

On the foreign policy front, she supported the nuclear arms race, and Ronald Reagan’s Star Wars proposals, vigorously opposing strategic arms initiatives, and even Richard Nixon’s trip to China.

While Mrs. America reflects the culture wars  of the 1970s – and critics will argue over how accurate that reflection is – Schlafly was a culture warrior right up until the time of her death. At the time of her death, Americans United wrote. “During the early years of the AIDS crisis, Schlafly opposed HIV education for young people, and she fought sex education in public schools as well. Schlafly argued, without evidence, that sex education increases teen pregnancy.” Schlafly’s Eagle Forum on the LGBTQ community, “unleash[ed] a flood of hysterical op-eds and articles” opposing LGBTQ rights. “At one point, Schlafly went so far as to propose impeaching judges who upheld marriage equality and called on Congress to cut off all federal aid to any state that permitted the practice.”

As Pier Dominguez wrote, “She was invoking and mobilizing the same vision of the straight, white, traditional upper-middle class that plenty of white women voted for decades later, in their quest to Make America Great Again. It’s no surprise that Donald Trump — who was also presumed by the mainstream media to be a New York–style Republican, and not ‘that kind of racist,’ despite launching his campaign by railing against Mexican ‘rapists’ — was the subject of Schlafly’s last book.”