The Patriot Post® · 'Mrs. America' Grossly Smears Phyllis Schlafly, Conservative Women

Aside from the continued existence of Donald J. Trump, there’s nothing that enrages the Left more than a threat to their perceived monopoly over women.

Conservative women are regularly portrayed as servants to their husbands, prisoners in their homes, and victims of their Christian faith. Women who dare to speak out against the feminist movement often face character assassination in the media.

That ever-present threat never stopped Phyllis Schlafly, author of the 1964 polemic A Choice Not an Echo, which inspired conservatives to stand up to the liberal Republican establishment. But it was her later work against the Equal Rights Amendment that still draws ire from feminists on the far Left.

In reality, the ERA was never really about equal rights for women (the 14th Amendment already offers women equal protection under the law). Instead, it was a Trojan horse designed to implement the progressive worldview.

As a result, Schlafly, who died in 2016 at age 92, was rightly concerned about many of the same problems we face today: the breakdown of the American family, abortion as a form of birth control, the blurring of lines regarding gender, and the general disdain for women who choose to stay at home and raise their children. Despite what her critics said, Schlafly was never against women having careers. In fact, she spent her career proving them wrong.

Schlafly’s niece, Suzanne Venker, writes at the Washington Examiner, “Schlafly was no doubt the most divisive (indeed, hated) woman in America in the 1970s — much like President Trump (who attended Phyllis’s funeral in 2016) is today. Now that she is gone, feminists are exacting their revenge.”

And revenge is clearly part of a new critically acclaimed Hulu series this week called “Mrs. America,” based on Schlafly’s work to help defeat the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s.

“Feminists can rewrite history to their heart’s content, and few will stop them, in part because so few people alive today know the truth,” Venker adds. “Most people take it at face value. They honestly believe Mrs. America is a bona fide documentary.”

As you might expect, the series doesn’t care much for the truth. As a result, viewers will see a caricature of Schlafly — that of a homemaker oppressed by a sexist (and rapist) husband and a patriarchal society. The Federalist’s Emily Jashinsky explains that the series’ writers “had no interest in consulting the Schlafly family or their matriarch’s biographer.” After all, why trust viewers with the facts when politicized fiction better serves the Left’s rotten agenda?

These days, anyone under the sway of Hollywood movies, television news, or social media might think feminism is stronger than ever and that Schlafly’s work to “turn back the clock” ultimately failed.

But feminism continues to face one significant obstacle: Many women just don’t find it appealing. “Only about a third of American women identify as feminists — about the same percentage who stays home with their children,” notes Inez Feltscher Stepman of the Independent Women’s Forum. “Even among young women, the majority still disassociate from the term. Just half of mothers report that full-time work would be the ideal situation for them while they have children in the home. The priorities of Ms. magazine have always been out of sync with the actual lives and desires of millions women across the country, and it’s their power that Schlafly harnessed.”

If Schlafly’s daughter has any say in the matter, “Mrs. America’s” attempt to demonize her mom and her ideas will backfire. Working with Eagle Forum, the organization that Schlafly founded, Anne Schlafly Cori has created MrsAmerica.org, a hub for factual resources that help reveal the real woman who worked so tirelessly to protect American families and culture.