Phyllis Schlafly's Social Policies - Women and Employment

Women and Employment

Schlafly believes that motherhood is the best job option for women seeking career fulfillment, and that “it is ludicrous to suggest that are more self-fulfilling than the daily duties of a wife and mother in the home”. Though it can be necessary for some women to work outside the home, Schlafly states that motherhood proffers the most satisfaction of any job, and “most women would rather cuddle a baby than a typewriter or factory machine. Not only does the baby provide a warm and loving relationship that satisfies the woman’s maternal instinct and returns love for service, but it is a creative and growing job that builds for the future”.

Schlafly objects to what she sees as the feminist assertion that women are paid less than men or are otherwise discriminated against in the work force; she says, “a deceitful propaganda campaign has been orchestrated by the feminist movement to convince the American people that” women who take paying jobs receive fewer wages on the dollar than men who do the same work. This, she claims, “is part of the feminists’ denigration of the role of motherhood… is designed to eliminate…motherhood by changing us into a society in which women are harnessed into the labor force both full-time and for a lifetime”. In fact, Schlafly believes, even if men really do earn more than women, this is beneficial to society as a whole, because, “we want a society in which the average man earns more than the average woman so that his earnings can fulfill his provider role in providing a home and support for his wife who is nurturing and mothering their children”.

Klatch theorizes, “Because social conservatives adhere to a hierarchal ordering, they believe positional difference between women and men do not imply inequality, and, therefore, they deny the existence of discrimination”. Schlafly explains, “Just because there is a small percentage of women in senior management does not prove discrimination. It proves instead that the majority of women have made other choices—usually family choices”. Schlafly also objects to wage and other equality for women in the work force because they destroy mothers’ protection from over-time work, which makes it “more difficult for women to perform their domestic duties”. Similarly, Schlafly states, “We certainly don’t want a society in which the average wage paid to all women equals men, because that society would have eliminated the role of motherhood”.