41 In her book Why We Lost the ERA, Jane Mansbridge argues that the ERA failed not on its merits but because the amendment's proponents promised its passing would produce “radical results” for women’s equality, resulting in a conservative backlash.69 According to Heifetz, framing an issue is imperative for the public’s understanding and eventual acceptance, and Schlafly and LaHaye monopolized the potential adverse effects of the ERA.70 The women’s liberation movement framed the Equal Rights Amendment as ensuring women would get equal pay for equal work. However, Schlafly and LaHaye framed this argument as a disguise for more government involvement in women’s lives. They argued that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act required women to receive the same pay as men. Instead, Schlafly and LaHaye convinced conservative women that passing the Equal Rights Amendment permitted Congress to draft women into the military, institute unisex bathrooms, lose their husband’s financial protection, promote homosexuality, and offer abortion on demand.71 Schlafly and LaHaye also framed the ERA as an attack on a woman’s “right to choose homemaking as her career” and to follow traditional family values.72 The pro-ERA groups saw the STOP ERA campaign as enabling discrimination. However, Phyllis Schlafly disagreed. Instead of a discriminated group, Schlafly argued that “the American woman is the most privileged.”73 Schlafly reasoned that God, not man, made woman and gave her the ability to bear children. Therefore, America’s “Judeo-Christian civilization has developed the law and custom that, since women must bear the physical consequences of the sex act, men must be required to bear the other consequences and pay in other ways.”74 Why would women give up these “special privileges” for something less? Schlafly’s arguments convinced conservative Americans to defy the ERA, launching once politically inactive homemakers into the political sphere. Beverly LaHaye and Phyllis Schlafly used several tactics to convince white women and state congressmen to vote against the Equal Rights Amendment. One example was their systematic approach to defeating the ERA in Illinois, Schlafly’s home state. Though these women did not possess the formal authority to vote against the ERA, they used their informal authority to garner influence within the legislative WOMEN, LEADERSHIP, AND THE POWER OF THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT
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