Of Husbands and Toilets -- Reaction

Reserve Reading

I just typed up notes on the entire 14 pages of this article, and then my computer decided to shut off. But I'm writing my response anyway. I think it's sad how this entire amendent was stopped by one woman, or so it seems. Phyllis Schlafly joined together the "homemakers" in a way no one else had managed to do and although she didn't stop the amendment entirely by herself, she was vital in stopping it.

The fact that women banned together behind the idea of unisex toilets to defeat the ERA, even though the Senate had already addressed the issue and invalidated it, showed how little they actually knew about the situation. It was this ignorance that really cost women the amendment, in my opinion. They weren't well organized, didn't get their views out there, and were often fighting each other as well as the other side. On the other hand, there was Phyllis Schlafly.

I was surprised that she didn't come into the picture until so late in the process. Her first article was in 1972, right before the Senate passed the amendment, and only after that did she start to really focus. That she could have done so much in so little time is remarkable. Although I greatly disagree with what she did and what she believed in, I have to give her grudging respect on how much of an effect she made. If someone of her training, intelligence and personality had been on the pro-ERA side from early on it might have been very different.

It was also interesting to find out that it was mostly the lower class women who were still house makers, and thus it was them who were threateed. In retrospect, it does make sense. If they worked outside the home, with their bare education, they wouldn't get any type of higher level job and have very little hope for advancement. Better to cling to what you have right?

NOW should have focused on these women, showing thtem what they could have in the way of protection and equal working laws. Reading this article continued to make me think that homemakers seemed to think they were better then men. Having the ERA didn't necessarily mean stripping protective labor laws for women, it could have added labor laws for men, and don't they diserve those too?