Phyllis Schlafly's Social Policies - Men's and Women's Roles in Marriage

Men's and Women's Roles in Marriage

In marriage, Schlafly argues, men and women’s roles are different and should remain so, in spite of ERA-related feminist efforts to equalize their roles. In an article on the New Right, Rebecca Klatch explains Schlafly’s view of marriage and the difference between men and women’s roles: “Social conservative women believe in a strict division of gender roles as decreed by the scriptures. Gender is envisioned as a hierarchal ordering with God and Christ at the top, followed by men, and then women”. Schlafly defends her stance as one necessary to order instead of a threat to equality; she says, “If marriage is to be a successful institution, it must...have an ultimate decision maker, and that is the husband”. Klatch further states that, according to Schlafly, “It is women’s role to support men in their positions of higher authority through altruism and self-sacrifice”.

Some feminists, like Petchesky, have criticized Schlafly’s patriarchal stance, saying the New Right stands for male domination and female bondage, or “the right of the white male property owner to control his wife and his wife’s body, his children and their bodies, his slaves and their bodies. It is an ideology that is patriarchal and racist”.