Firenze Sage: a real feminist — Phyllis Schlafly

She was known nationwide and in many political circles as the reason the Equal Rights Amendment was defeated in the 1970s and, subsequently, into the 1980s. As momentum grew in the 1970s for the amendment, Schlafly became its most outspoken critic and was vilified by its supporters. She had a pie smashed into her face and pig’s blood thrown on her, and feminist Betty Friedan once told Schlafly: “I’d like to burn you at the stake.” She was chastised in a 1970s “Doonesbury” a framed copy of which hung on her office wall.

“What I am defending is the real rights of women,” Schlafly said at the time. “A woman should have the right to be in the home as a wife and mother.”

Thirty-five states ratified the amendment, three short of the necessary 38. Schlafly said amendment supporters couldn’t prove it was needed.

“They were never able to show women would get any benefit out of it,” she told the Associated Press in 2007. “It (the U.S. Constitution) is already sex-neutral. Women already have all the rights that men have.”

Firenze Sage:  Feminist Betty Friedan once told Schlafly: “I’d like to burn you at the stake.”

Maybe the feminist should be a tad more feminine.