Ladue's Phyllis Schlafly Featured on PBS' 'Makers' Broadcast Tuesday

Phyllis Schafly, the Ladue resident and Alton native whose work as a conservative political activist spans five decades, will be among those profiled Tuesday evening in a broadcast of "Makers: Women Who Make America."

The three-hour broadcast will air on PBS Channel 9 at 7 p.m. Tuesday in a show that chronicles the modern women's movement and includes profiles of movement leaders such as Gloria Steinem and Eleanor Holmes Norton; celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey and Katie Couric; and political figures such as Hillary Clinton and Schlafly.

The broadcast is described as the "remarkable story of the most sweeping social revolution in American history, as women have asserted their rights to a full and fair share of political power, economic opportunity, and personal autonomy."

Parts of the broadcast highlight Schlafly's activism in opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, a battle that played out in the public arena and state legislatures through much of the 1970s.

"They definitely underestimated me. They didn't think I could win," Schlafly says in a section of an interview available on the Makers website featuring her. She interview briefly chronicles who campaign in the critical state of Illinois, when three more states were needed to ratify the ERA.

The amendment fell five votes short of the necessary two-thirds required for passage in the Illinois house. That was the nail in the coffin for the ERA.

"Teaching the conservative movement that it is possible to win—I think that was a real accomplishment," she said in the interview. "That would be the one I'm most proud of."

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Would you number Schlafy among the "women who made America"? Why or why not? Comment below.