the state citrus agency of Florida, which Bryant had represented for eleven
years, decided she was no longer a suitable representative because of her
divorce: “The contract had to expire, because of the divorce and so forth, ”
one agency executive said (The New York Times, September 2, 1980). Feminist lawyer and former National Organization for Women president Karen DeCrow urged Bryant to bring suit under the 1977 Florida Human Rights
Act, which prohibits job discrimination on the basis of marital status.
Even before DeCrow’s sisterly act, however, Bryant had reevaluated her
position on the women’s movement, to which, under Green’s tutelage, she
had been bitterly opposed. “What has happened to me, ” Bryant told the
National Enquirer in June 1980, “makes me understand why there are angry
women who want to pass ERA [Equal Rights Amendment]. That still is
not the answer. But the church doesn’t deal with the problems of women
as it should. There’s been some really bad teachings, and I think that’s
why I’m really concerned for my own children—particularly the girls.
You have to recognize that there has been discrimination against women,
that women have not had the teaching of the fullness and uniqueness of
their abilities. ” Pace, sister.
the Panama Canal Treaty. Her roots, and perhaps her heart such
as it is, are in the Old Right, but she remained unknown to any
significant public until she mounted her crusade against the Equal
Rights Amendment. It is likely that her ambition is to use women
as a constituency to effect entry into the upper echelon of right-
wing male leadership. She may yet discover that she is a woman
(as feminists understand the meaning of the word) as her male colleagues refuse to let her escape the ghetto of female issues and enter the big tim e. * At any rate, she seems to be able to manipulate the
fears of women without experiencing them. If this is indeed the
case, this talent would give her an invaluable, cold-blooded detachment as a strategist determined to convert women into antifeminist activists. It is precisely because women have been trained to respect and follow those who use them that Schlafly inspires awe and
* According to many newspaper reports, Phyllis Schlafly wanted Reagan
to appoint her to a position in the Pentagon. This he did not do. In a
debate with Schlafly (Stanford University, January 26, 1982) lawyer
Catharine A. MacKinnon tried to make Schlafly understand that she had
been discriminated against as a woman: “Mrs. Schlafly tells us that being a
woman has not gotten in her way. I propose that any man who had a law
degree and graduate work in political science; had given testimony on a
wide range of important subjects for decades; had done effective and brilliant political, policy and organizational work within the party [the Republican Party]; had published widely, including nine books; and stopped a major social initiative to amend the constitution just short of victory dead
in its tracks [the Equal Rights Amendment]; and had a beautiful accomplished family— any man like that would have a place in the current administration.. . . I would accept correction if this is wrong; and she may yet be appointed. She was widely reported to have wanted such a post,
but I don’t believe everything I read, especially about women. I do think
she should have wanted one and they should have found her a place she
wanted. She certainly deserved a place in the Defense Department. Phyllis
Schlafly is a qualified woman. ” Answered Schlafly: “This has been an
interesting debate. More interesting than I thought it was going to be.. . .
I think my opponent did have one good point— [audience laughter] Well,
she had a couple of good points.. . . She did have a good point about the
Reagan administration, but it is the Reagan administration’s loss that they
didn’t ask me to [drowned out by audience applause] but it isn’t my loss. ”
devotion in women who are afraid that they w ill be deprived of the
form, shelter, safety, rules, and love that the Right promises and
on which they believe survival depends.
*
At the National Women’s Conference (Houston, Texas, November
1977), I spoke with many women on the Right. The conversations
were ludicrous, terrifying, bizarre, instructive, and, as other feminists have reported, sometimes strangely moving.
Right-wing women fear lesbians. A liberal black delegate from
Texas told me that local white women had tried to convince her
that lesbians at the conference would assault her, call her dirty
names, and were personally filthy. She told me that she would vote
against the sexual-preference resolution* because otherwise she
would not be able to return home. But she also said that she would
tell the white women that the lesbians had been polite and clean.
She said that she knew it was wrong to deprive anyone of a job and
had had no idea before coming to Houston that lesbian mothers
lost their children. T his, she felt, was genuinely terrible. I asked
her if she thought a time would come when she would have to
stand up for lesbian rights in her hometown. She nodded yes
gravely, then explained with careful, evocative emphasis that the
next-closest town to where she lived was 160 miles away. The history of blacks in the South was palpable.
* “Congress, State, and local legislatures should enact legislation to eliminate discrimination on the basis of sexual and affectional preference in areas including, but not limited to, employment, housing, public accommodations, credit, public facilities, government funding, and the military.
“State legislatures should reform their penal codes or repeal State laws
that restrict private sexual behavior between consenting adults.
“State legislatures should enact legislation that would prohibit consideration o f sexual or affectional orientation as a factor in any judicial determination of child custody or visitation rights. Rather, child custody cases should be evaluated solely on the merits of which party is the better parent, without regard to that person’s sexual and affectional orientation. ”
Right-wing women consistently spoke to me about lesbians as if
lesbians were rapists, certified committers of sexual assault against