Phyllis Schlafly's Social Policies - Differences Between Men and Women

Differences Between Men and Women

According to Schlafly’s social policy writings, “men and women are different, and…those very differences provide the key to…success as a person and fulfillment as a woman”. Schlafly’s stance was a reaction to feminist proponents of the ERA, who argued that men and women should be treated equally in all circumstances, from employment to home living, and that they should be referred to using gender neutral terms. Schlafly, however, exalts the differences between men and women: “Feminine means accentuating the womanly attributes that make women deliciously different from men. The feminine woman…knows that she is a person with her own identity and that she can seek fulfillment in the career of her choice, including of traditional wife and mother”.

Schlafly holds the position that men and women are fundamentally different, and resists what she terms the “feminist ” assertion that “we must redesign society to become gender neutral and that men must shed their macho image and remake themselves to become househusbands”. Instead, she believes that nothing can eradicate the differences between men and women. She says in The Power of the Positive Woman, “It is self-evident…that the female body with its baby-producing organs was not designed by a conspiracy of men but by the Divine Architect of the human race” Furthermore, “the Positive Woman looks upon her femaleness and her fertility as part of her purpose, her potential, and her power. She rejoices that she has a capability for creativity that men can never have”. Schlafly argues that although her feminist opponents seek to minimize the differences between men and women, “they will have to take up their complaint with God,” because “no other power” can alter the fundamental and necessary differences between men and women.