Schlafly hosted a conference called "How To Take Back America" last weekend, in which she said,

I submit to you that the feminist movement is the most dangerous, destructive force in our society today. [...] My analysis is that the gays are about 5% of the attack on marriage in this country, and the feminists are about 95%. [...] I'm talking about drugs, sex, illegitimacy, drop outs, poor grades, run away, suicide, you name it, every social ill comes out of the fatherless home.

If this helpful breakdown of the assault on marriage (could we have it in pie chart form?) just leaves you wanting more Phyllis, you can put her on your wall in 2010. The Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute is now accepting pre-orders for its Great American Conservative Women calendar. For a "donation" of $25, you get not just Schlafly, but also Prejean, Michelle Malkin, Michele Bachmann, Ann Coulter, and many more — all, of course, modestly clad. Those who want to try before they buy can watch a video of the making of the calendar, though I can't say I recommend it. Prejean is reportedly Miss October — perfect for Halloween. We're not sure what month Schlafly graces, but she'd be a good choice for spring, when a feminist's mind turns to thoughts of destroyed marriages and fatherless homes.

Carrie Prejean — Conservative Calendar Girl [TMZ]
Right-Wing Icon Schlafly: Feminism Is ‘The Most Dangerous, Destructive Force In Our Society Today.' [Think Progress]
Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute [Calendar Page]

In an interview with Time's Andrea Sachs, Phyllis says she's super-proud of her work in limiting women's rights in America. She's just not super-clear about why.

It would have given vast new powers to the federal courts because the Equal Rights Amendment did not define the operative words, which were sex and equality. So what does sex mean? Is it the sex you are, or the sex you do? What does equality mean? Does it mean equality of individual people like the Fourteenth Amendment, or does it mean the equality of a group?

So, basically, Schlafly's argument, such as it is, is that the Supreme Court might have defined "sex" in the Equal Rights Amendment as not gender but intercourse? And that there are no other laws that define groups of people as equal?

Also, can you "do" sex?

Anyway, according to Schafly, the problem with the institution of marriage is not its infiltration by The Gheyz, but what feminists have done to it.

My own belief is that the problem [facing] marriage is maybe only 5% a problem with gay activism, and 95% a problem with feminist activism. [Feminists] have given us divorce, millions of fatherless children and the idea that it's O.K. to be a single mom. I'm not talking about women who lose a husband for one reason or another. We're talking about the idealization of a single mom. I believe that the worst thing the liberals did in this country was the Lyndon Johnson welfare system, which broke up millions of marriages by funneling taxpayers' money solely to the woman. That made the father and husband irrelevant.



(Men, you see, have nothing to do with leaving their wives or getting anyone pregnant.)

Schlafly also says she wants to correct the impression that she's opposed to women working; she's just opposed to them working while they have children at home (are you listening, Sarah Palin?).

Well, that's ridiculous because obviously I've had a wonderful life and I'm an example that women can do whatever they want to do. I've had it all, but I've had it at different times in my life. I spent 25 years without any income, a separate income, raising my six children. And after that I had time to go out and engage in politics.

Yes, I have no doubt that Schlafly was not doing well financially.

But, you see, the feminist movement doesn't honor Republican women who are successful, because if we note that there are 3 or 4 successful women in the world, then our argument that the other 3.5 billion women in the world deserve equality and need help getting it will be negated.

The feminist movement is not about success for women. It is about treating women as victims and about telling women that you can't succeed because society is unfair to you, and I think that's a very unfortunate idea to put in the minds of young women because I believe women can do whatever they want. Feminists don't honor successful women. You never hear them talking about Margaret Thatcher. Take Condoleezza Rice. She's a remarkable, successful woman. You don't hear the feminists talk about her or Carly Fiorina or Jeanne Kirkpatrick. They don't talk about them because they are just determined to preach this idea that women are unfairly treated in our society and they need legislation and government and taxpayers' money in order to get them a fair break. 



Phyllis Schlafly, Antifeminist [Time]

• So, like, do you ever read the little box at the beginning of every issue of the Economist where it explains that the magazine was "first published in 1843 to take part in "a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress." I don't know why that came to mind today (it's been awhile since I, uh, tried to take part in that game!) but...
  
• Today 300 students at Washington University in St. Louis protested the school's baffling bestowal of an honorary degree on Phyllis Schlafly. [STL Today]
  
• About whom the best the local paper can say, "she's no Robert Mugabe." [STL Today]
  
• And who once, in words that surely could have inspired our president's insinuations before the Israel Knesset yesterday, said: "The delusion that America can be defended by treaties instead of by weapons is the most persistent and pernicious of all liberal fallacies." [TNR]
  
• And also said (just this week): "Feminists, if they get tired of a husband or if they want to fight over child custody, they can make an accusation of marital rape and they want that to be there, available to them." [Feministing]

• And yeah, uh, Mike Huckabee + National Rifle Association + incomprehensible Barack Obama assassination joke = "audience laughter." [DailyKos]
• Barack Obama tells David Brooks "there are rarely purely ideological movements out there. We can encourage actors to think in practical and not ideological terms. We can strengthen those elements that are making practical calculations." And David Brooks...rescinds his assertion that Obama is living in Chomskyland! [NYT]
• "Running as an incumbent, as the inevitable candidate, was probably our biggest mistake, particularly in a time when the country is really hungry for change." That and like 76 other reasons the Clinton campaign was a failure, by the Clinton campaign staff. [TNR]

As the head of the the Eagle Forum, a self-proclaimed "leading pro-family organization," Schlafly and Co. put out a press release condemning the U.S. government's "endorsement" of International Women's Day, because "IWD serves to advance radical feminism in the form of promoting pro-abortion and pro-gay rights legislation, ratification of ERA, affirmative action for women, Title IX, government babysitting services, and government wage control, commonly camouflaged as 'pay equity' or 'comparable worth.'" Oh man, all the lesbian bonerkillers are certainly making so much progress in the Bush Administration with their commie agendas. Schlafly should be worried!

The agenda promoted by IWD is especiallly relevant in places like Saudi Arabia, where, despite plans to lift the ban in the future, women are still not allowed to drive without a male accompanying them. Wajiha Huwaidar, an activist who has been agitating for the right to drive, posted this video on YouTube on Friday, showing herself riding nonchalantly though the Saudi countryside in honor of International Women's Day. (Any readers out there who speak Arabic and can translate her dialogue, drop us a line!).

And Saudi Arabia isn't the only country where the status of women is often in peril. The Toronto Star named the ten worst countries for women, and in addition to Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Nepal, the Sudan, Somalia and Mali also made the list. The best countries for women include Iceland, Norway, Australia, Canada, Japan and Sweden. Anyone have any ideas as to why the U.S. wasn't on that list?

[Image via Global Center for Woman's Politics.]

IWD Ignored By News [WIMNs Voices]
Talking Politics, Power On Intl. Women's Day [NPR]
International Women's Day: Code for 'Advancing Radical Feminism Around the Globe' [Earth Times]
Wajeha Al-Huwaider For Women's Day 2008 [Youtube]
Saudi Woman Defies Driving Ban To Mark Women's Day [Breitbart]
Ten Worst Countries For Women [Toronto Star via Jules Crittenden]