Gendered Discourse in the ERA of Change

Drawing on a qualitative analysis of 160 Equal Rights Amendment-related articles published in The Phyllis Schlafly Report, I examine how Phyllis Schlafly and her STOP-ERA (“Stop Taking Our Privileges”) campaign mobilized women against the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) by reframing gender equality as a threat to women. Rather than rejecting the language of women’s liberation outright, Schlafly inverted and co-opted feminist claims, portraying women as a privileged class whose access to domesticity and economic support would be undermined by the Amendment. Within this framework, existing gender arrangements were presented not as sources of subordination, but as benefits that the ERA would revoke. Using social movement framing theory, the paper analyzes how Schlafly performed diagnostic, prognostic, and motivational framing; redefined equality, freedom, and liberation; and adjusted her messaging in response to changing political conditions. I argue that the ERA’s defeat reflects not only weaknesses in the pro-ERA campaign, but also the efficacy of anti-ERA counterframing. The paper contributes to scholarship on gender, social movements, and conservative politics by illustrating how oppositional movements mobilize support through the inversion and appropriation of feminist language.