Leader who transformed the image of a conservative woman

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PHYLLIS SCHLAFLY AND GRASSROOTS CONSERVATISM: A WOMAN'S CRUSADE

By Donald T. Critchlow

Princeton, $29.95, 438 pages, illus.

REVIEWED BY SUZANNE FIELDS

The modern feminist movement celebrated Betty Friedan for urging women into the workplace. The opposition, upholding the values of motherhood, celebrated Phyllis Schlafly.

The modern feminist movement rallied around Gloria Steinem, a founder of Ms. Magazine who gave radical feminist politics a persistent voice. The opposition rallied around Phyllis Schlafly, who founded The Phyllis Schlafly Report, a four-page newsletter influential for conservative women who wanted to protect stay-at-home moms.

The modern feminist movement got behind Pat Schroeder, the congresswoman who ran a short-lived campaign for president as a proponent of the Equal Rights Amendment. Phyllis Schlafly took on Ms. Schroeder, the movement, the media and nearly every politician in America, and won. She's come a long way, baby.

"Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservatism: A Woman's Crusade," by Donald T. Chritchlow is a biography of a conservative, activist woman leader and the history of the grassroots minions she organized, almost single-handedly transforming the image of a conservative woman from "the little old lady in tennis shoes," searching for communists under her bed, to a movement of well-organized, sophisticated women volunteers who moved into party politics. She may be the only woman of the late 20th century who could be accurately called as influential as Susan B. Anthony.

The movement she led competed successfully with the power garnered by feminists of the left, but with a completely different philosophy. In the early days when feminists were looking for ways to become "superwoman," Phyllis Schlafly actually became one. But no one would say so.