2025 Theses Bachelor's

In Defense Of Difference: Phyllis Schlafly And The Politics Of Privilege

McWhirter, Abigail

This thesis explores how Phyllis Schlafly’s anti-ERA activism redefined domesticity as a form of white female privilege, reinforcing patriarchal, capitalist, and white supremacist hierarchies under the guise of natural order. Through analysis of Schlafly’s 1972 report “What’s Wrong with ‘Equal Rights’ for Women?” and a 1977 DAR book talk, the paper examines how female privilege was rhetorically claimed and institutionalized to resist progressive challenges to traditional gender roles. Drawing on Lauren Berlant’s theory of the “scandal of ex-privilege” and Amy Kaplan’s concept of “imperial domesticity,” the project reveals how white, middle-class women were mobilized as guardians of national identity and exclusionary citizenship. Ultimately, it argues that privilege—rather than being antithetical to democracy—functions as a foundational political technology that determines who belongs in America.

Keywords: white privilege, domesticity, conservatism, American identity, Phyllis Schlafly, New Right