Ugh! Why Phyllis Why?

The Equal Rights for Which Women?: The E.R.A. of the 1920s and 1970s and Debates over American Women’s Roles
This class discussion really opened my eyes in how the ERA worked and why it didn’t pass. The way the opposition used fear of what was important at the time to keep the law from passing. By targeting the groups that this bill effects and using their fears to make them think the bill will hurt them rather than help them seems like the main strategy used by people trying to stop social justice. It is really hard to understand why people were and still are so against women having an equal role in our society. I look at the heat that Hillary Clinton faced because she was a woman and no one wanted to look at the great abilities that a woman could possible bring to the white house. Why does inequality matter so much to the conservative right? I personally feel like there are enough resources to go around for all of us on this small planet but why can’t we just share?
What upsets me the most is when individuals from oppressed groups fight against their oppressed identity. For example Phyllis Schlafly was one of the biggest opponents for the E.R.A. and she was a women who did not even follow her own ideals. Claiming that women need to stay in the home to help their husbands, and that the laws need to protect women because they are more venerable compared to men, yet she went out speaking all over the country and didn’t stay home with her husband. It is people like this that scare women not to stand up for themselves and take the abuse that society is dishing out. How can she as a woman stand against other women to help suppress their rights, to me that is just mind baffling and seems like an oxymoron. I don’t understand what would motivate someone to fight so hard against something that will ultimately make their life better? For me I really hope that something like the E.R.A. will appear in congress and in the house again so we can prove to the world that the United States is capable of equality and even though that we have a horrible history we realize that and want to move forward with it!