Eagle Forum

The Eagle Forum is a national conservative organization that promotes grassroots involvement in policymaking. Phyllis Schlafly (1924-) founded the Eagle Forum in 1972 and continues to serve as its president. The organization was formed to defeat legislation called the Equal Rights Amendment, primarily because Schlafly believed that it would result in tax-funded abortions and same-sex marriage. After a 10-year battle, Schlafly and her followers succeeded in blocking the amendment's ratification, and the organization gained prominence as a political force to mobilize the Christian Right. At this time, the Eagle Forum reports that it has 80,000 members in 45 branches. It has offices on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., and in Alton, Illinois.

Born to a Catholic family in St. Louis, Missouri, Schlafly earned a master's degree in government from Radcliffe (Harvard) in 1945 and a law degree at Washington University in 1978. In 1949, she married the late Fred Schlafly, a Catholic lawyer from Alton, Illinois, who was a conservative anti-Communist. The couple raised six children.

Schlafly's political involvement began in 1946, when she worked as a campaign manager for a Republican congressional bid. She has attended every Republican National Convention since 1952 and wrote a best-selling book about her experience called Choice Not an Echo (1964), which was influential in promoting Barry Goldwater's candidacy. After Schlafly lost a 1967 bid for the presidency of the National Federation of Republican Women, she began publishing a monthly newsletter to unite her conservative supporters, called the Phyllis Schlafly Report. She rose to prominence in the early 1970s, when she started her fight against what she calls “the radical feminist movement.”

Schlafly has appeared regularly on television and radio and, since 1989, has produced a weekly radio show called Eagle Forum Live. She has authored or edited 20 books that offer a conservative perspective on subjects ranging from home schooling to nuclear strategy. Schlafly also developed a phonics system to fight illiteracy.