When John McCain named Sarah Palin as his running mate, the Right could barely contain its glee and among those most ethused by the pick was Phyllis Schlafly who, even after Palin was a no-show at her convention reception, had nothing but praise for her and her priorities:
Schlafly told WND McCain’s choice of Palin was the best he could possibly have made.
“Sarah Palin has reinvigorated the entire Republican Party,” she said. “And it’s across the board. It’s not just pro-lifers. She’s a breath of fresh air. She’s right on every issue.”
Schlafly addressed criticism that Palin is hypocritical, because her demanding job as a political leader, while mothering five children, conflicts with the traditional values she espouses.
“We do stand up for the role of the full-time homemaker,” Schlafly replied. “On the other hand, a lot of women work hard. I think people who don’t have any children, or have one or two, don’t understand what life is like with more children.”
This reminded me of a post entitled “Don’t Marry Phyllis Schlafly” that I wrote a few years back after Schlafly blasted Steve Forbes for apologizing for publishing a widely criticized piece by Michael Noer in his magazine entitled “Don’t Marry Career Women.”
In the original piece, Noer listed several reasons why “whatever you do, [no men should] marry a woman with a career.” When Forbes, the publisher, was forced to apologize for running the piece, Schlafly came to Noer’s defense:
Eagle Forum’s Phyllis Schlafly feels Forbes has no reason to apologize since the facts and statistics Noer cited were sound. In fact, she suggests, an article like this should have been written 20 years ago, and this one still hits the right note today because, contrary to the feminist myth, a woman really cannot “have it all” — at least, not all at the same time.
To Schlafly, this is a simple question of practicality. “You can’t have it all at the same time. There are not that many hours in the day,” she asserts. “Now, with our lengthened lifespan, a woman can have it all; I think I’ve had it all,” she says, “but you don’t have it at the same time. A baby is extremely demanding — even more demanding than a husband.”
But the issue Noer’s article raises is not really about women who have careers, the pro-family spokeswoman points out. What the author is really highlighting in the Forbes article, she contends, is the problem of wives who set the wrong priorities.
“A lot of the newspapers … have published articles about how some of the most highly educated women — women who graduated from the elite colleges and then got graduate degrees like MBAs or JDs — have put their career ahead of husband and family,” Schlafly notes. “In many of these cases, in the woman’s scale of values, the husband is ranking third,” she says.
The real issue is not women having careers, Schlafly says, but women making their careers their highest priority, above family. When that type of situation takes place, she observes, it is not likely that a husband will stick around.
Presumably, Schlfaly’s enthusiastic support of Palin stems from the fact that Palin has her priorities straight and won’t be putting her “career ahead of husband and family” because, after all, a “baby is extremely demanding — even more demanding than a husband.”
