“I Want to Thank My Husband Fred for Letting Me Come Here,” or Phyllis Schlafly's Opportunistic Defense of Gender Hierarchy

Abstract

This chapter delineates the outline of antifeminism and the efficiency of this movement in quietly defending cis men’s supremacy under the guise of protecting housewives. It investigates how Schlafly’s activism can be situated in both women’s history and that of the US conservative movement by analysing the discourse and the social movement practices of its members, using both framing analysis and the cultural approach to social movements developed in sociology. The chapter echoes the growing field of research that studies gender on the Right, and it hopefully contributes to better characterizing the roots of male supremacist ideologies and their link to the antifeminist movement. Women on the Right disagreed with the feminist denunciation of the patriarchal system that evolved in the 1960s, reaffirming the primacy of patriarchal unions and reinforcing traditional gender roles for men and women. Men’s interests appeared to be endangered by the feminist alleged attempt to “neuterize” society.