ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Thursday, May. 15 2008

Schlafly controversy proves her continuing relevance
By Colleen Carroll Campbell

After more than four decades in the national spotlight, Phyllis Schlafly still
has what it takes to generate controversy. The best-selling author and St.
Louis native reprised a familiar role as the target of protests this month when
officials at her alma mater, Washington University, announced their intention
to award her an honorary degree at Friday's commencement ceremony.

Response from Schlafly's critics came fast and furious: More than a dozen
Washington University law professors signed a letter to chancellor Mark
Wrighton denouncing Schlafly's "polarizing, anti-intellectual positions" and
calling on the university to rescind the honor. A group of students launched an
anti-Schlafly Facebook Web page and threatened to don white armbands at
graduation and turn their backs to the stage when Schlafly is honored.

The ruckus made national headlines, with a chorus of Schlafly critics coming
out of the woodwork to remind us again why this octogenarian is a dangerous
woman.

None of this is new to Schlafly. The conservative activist has drawn fire ever
since she took center stage in the 1970s-era battle against the Equal Rights
Amendment, which she and her grass-roots coalition of traditionally minded
women successfully defeated to the horror of the feminist establishment.

Schlafly's mix of a pretty-and-prim persona with laser-sharp wit and a
contrarian streak have made her a woman radical feminists love to hate. She has
been burned in effigy, smacked in the face with a pie and even targeted with
bomb threats. During a 1973 debate about the ERA, Betty Friedan famously said
she wanted to burn Schlafly at the stake. Schlafly replied with characteristic
aplomb: "I'm glad you said that because it just shows the intemperate nature of
proponents of the ERA."

Such cheerful rejoinders infuriate Schlafly's critics. And even more irritating
than what Schlafly says is who she is: an educated, accomplished and articulate
woman who achieved the successes that modern feminism promised American women
without toeing the feminist ideological line.

Long before women's liberation activists began burning their bras and bewailing
patriarchy, Schlafly was shattering glass ceilings that she stubbornly refused
to recognize. She worked her way through college at Washington University
during World War II by firing ammunition rounds at a munitions plant at nights.
She graduated Phi Beta Kappa, earned a master's degree in government at
Harvard, then worked for a Washington, D.C.-based think tank before returning
to St. Louis to marry her husband.

While her radical feminist counterparts were championing abortion on demand and
ridiculing marriage as a "comfortable concentration camp," Schlafly was running
for Congress, traveling cross-country to defend traditional moral values and
earning a law degree from Washington University, all while raising her six
children.

Schlafly's activism made pro-life and pro-family concerns a crucial part of
America's political debates and mobilized millions of women who felt
marginalized and misrepresented by the feminist establishment. Although derided
as alarmist, many of Schlafly's warnings about the fallout of radical feminist
ideology proved prescient, as attested to by our current debates over
everything from judicial activism and gay marriage to unisex bathrooms and a
military draft for women.

The continuing relevance of Schlafly goes a long way toward explaining her
continued vilification by opinion elites. One need not agree with everything
Schlafly says to recognize the irony of the law professors' claim that they
oppose Schlafly because of her "anti-intellectualism," not her political views,
even as they cite her views on political and social issues as proof of her
alleged anti-intellectualism. Apparently, true intellectuals can come to only
one conclusion on these issues, and Phyllis Schlafly failed the litmus test.

The outrage over Schlafly only underscores the need to honor this woman as a
reminder to politically correct academics and their students that not all
intellectuals think alike and not all successful women fit the feminist mold.

Colleen Carroll Campbell is an author, television and radio host and St.
Louis-based fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
Her website is www.colleen-campbell.com.