Eagle Forum Leader Schlafly Calls Single Women “Welfare Queens” – Yes, She Really Did

Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly put her foot in it big time yesterday when she said single women are “welfare queens” and President Obama is trying to create more of them, just so they’ll be dependent on what Schlafly refers to as “big daddy” government. After blacks, she claimed, they’re his second biggest voting block. The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News invited me to share my thoughts on the matter. Read TPM’s news report and watch the video of her remarks here if you have the stomach for it.

She’s wrong on at least two counts.

First, she failed the math. Single women are a bigger voting block because there are more of them than African Americans. Women make up 51 percent of the population, 54 percent of the voters, and up to 60 percent of the votes cast for Democratic candidates. Half of women are single. And Schlafly cites pollster Stan Greenberg’s polling that 70 percent of unmarried women voters cast their ballots for Obama and constituted 26 percent of his votes. African Americans make up approximately 11 percent of the voters and cast 23 percent of Obama’s votes.

But far more important than her erroneous math figures, the ultra-conservative crusader’s remarks demeaned and insulted half the women in this country. Or, actually, she insulted all of us because unless we were betrothed at age nine like girls subjected to child marriage in certain parts of the world every woman has been single at some point in our lives

I wonder, which women is she talking about then? Single working women? Single mothers only? Widows like herself? Bristol Palin? Please!

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It’s particularly ironic that Schlafly should rear her angry anti-feminist head on the subject right now, because this is such an amazing moment of opportunity for women. We’re 60 percent of college graduates and half the workforce today, despite holding only 18 percent of the top leadership positions. And I think we’re chafing at that imbalance in leadership.

Schlafly recognizes the potential power women voters can wield—that is, if they go to the polls and pull those levers for candidates who support equal rights for all, fair and equal pay, and reproductive justice. And that’s exactly what’s setting her off. She’s rightly afraid that her threadbare values that would keep women barefoot and pregnant are no longer shared even by many on the right.

Commitment to equal rights used to describe the Republican party, whose platform supported the Equal Rights Amendment as early as 1940. But as the Republicans abandoned women on ERA, reproductive rights, equal pay, and other gender equality and family policy issues, it’s not surprising that women are abandoning the Republicans in significant numbers.

The Schlafly 75, those candidates endorsed by her extreme right wing Eagle Forum, had better run away from her–as Republican Congressional candidate Andrew (Rocky) Raczkowski at whose fundraiser she made her outrageous remarks has done–unless she recants and apologizes. For I sincerely doubt that demonizing unmarried women, a key segment of what the organization Women’s Voices Women Vote calls the “Rising American Electorate” of women and minorities, is going to win one single vote her conservative candidates don’t already have in their bigoted bag.

4 Comments

  1. John on August 1, 2010 at 3:26 pm

    Thanks.

  2. Shannon Drury on August 1, 2010 at 3:28 pm

    Mrs. Schlafly must be more than a little disappointed in the 21st century, methinks. Yet the more she flaps her mouth, the more her true intentions are revealed. Not even Sarah Palin is interested in the Schlafly worldview anymore.

  3. Gloria Feldt on August 2, 2010 at 3:31 pm

    A few comments via Facebook:

    Elizabeth Gregory wow – bringing back “illegitimate” people. a bit dated!
    when she says “unmarried women” does she mean “unmarried mothers” or actually all women who aren’t married? Would that include widows like herself?
    Friday at 1:47pm ·
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    Christopher Atwell I don’t know, Is Bristol in Obama’s camp?
    Friday at 1:50pm ·
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    Zoe Nicholson This opponent of the ERA, proponent of capital punishment and queen of her minions is a woman who simply wants to deny equality to others as it advances her own special status. She is surrounded by her groupies, funded by their husbands and should be both exposed and then ignored. She certainly does not make 59 cents on the dollar. Actually, she believes that women should NOT be in the Constitution. Yes, I have met her, been in battle with her – yes, she won.
    Friday at 1:54pm · ·
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    Ingo Soeding
    Insulting single women doesn’t seem like a very constructive way to expand your constituency, i.e., she’s not only wrong, she’s also stupid.

    Also, how many MORE “illegitimate” children and single mothers would we have if Phyllis had her wa…y with regard to women’s rights like choice.See More
    Friday at 1:57pm ·
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    Raine Koch Why, I didn’t know this about my unmarried friends and family. As a matter of fact if these wonderful ladies were and are welfare queens, why didn’t they let me in on their secret when I was single???
    Friday at 2:03pm · L
    #
    Andrea Rothman Wow….good luck with that….that’s one of the most archaic statements I’ve heard in a long time! Dismiss it as nonsense!!!
    Friday at 2:11pm ··
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    Michael Druckman No breast implant comments
    Friday at 2:24pm ·
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    Alice Paul Phyllis Schlafly likes others to follow rules that she doesn’t follow for herself. Let her keep talking — her views are sooo antiquated that even GOP women will disagree with her.
    Friday at 2:32pm ·
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    Bob Lamm Ask O’Reilly if he has unmarried women on his staff and if they are all on welfare. Ask him if he has unmarried women as friends and if they are all on welfare. Ask him if he has unmarried adult women in his family and if they are on welfare. Ask him if he will take out his address book, read aloud the name of each unmarried woman, and say if she is or isn’t on welfare…. AND please make it clear that there is NOTHING terrible about being an unmarried woman, being on welfare, or both.
    Friday at 2:44pm · ·
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    Tricia DeGennaro Oh my, this is absurd. I wonder if bachelors also voted for Obama?
    Friday at 2:46pm ·
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    Elisa Henderson Parker
    Go Gloria! I didn’t realize that all unmarried women are on welfare. You mean to say that the only thing preventing women from poverty is our husbands? Are we to assume that Schlafly voted for Obama and is on welfare since she is a widow… with children? Her allegations are so ridiculous…how does her comments help women become self-sufficient? How does she respond to the women who did get married and supported their husband’s education (rather than their own) and whose husbands later left them with young children and as a result needed assistance.? Whew!See More
    Friday at 4:40pm · ·
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    Liz Massey
    I was actually surprised to hear she was still alive. And obviously her views haven’t changed since the 70s (or whenever she began her reign of error).

    Still waiting for my welfare payment, since I CAN’T get married to the person I love in t…he state I live in …See More
    Friday at 5:11pm ·
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    Jeanne Craft
    Freedom of speech is one of the most precious privileges we have in this country. Unfortunately, the price we pay is that truth may sacrificed in the exercise of the privilege. Broad, sweeping exaggeration designed to define the “other” tha…t we must defend against is a tactic used when facts to support claims are lacking.
    The fact that I am a single women tells you not one iota about my source of income or my political views or who I have voted for (another precious privilege)See More
    Friday at 7:32pm ·
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    Gail Moore Saw you this afternoon!
    Friday at 8:45pm · ·
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    Gloria Feldt
    Thank you all for your suggestions–they really did inform my messages in a positive way. I think Sandy Rios, who had the unfortunate task of defending Schlafly, looked so mean and angry–and tired. Juan as usual, assuaged his liberalness b…y giving her more time and sucking up to her at the end with a nod to her personal tragedy that I couldn’t interrupt. All that said, I felt great about the points I made re women’s political power, how insulting Schlafly is, and how silly of her to paint all single women with the same brush. I wrote a blogpost about it and if no one here minds, I’d like to post your comments verbatim. Let me know if you do not want me to post yours.See More
    Friday at 9:05pm ·
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    Bob Lamm Recorded the show and just watched your segment. I think you did very well, Gloria. Just a shame that Sandy Rios wouldn’t let you speak.
    Friday at 10:59pm · LikeUnlike ·
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    Gloria Feldt Thanks Bob-I got my book on the screen and my key points made so it was good enough. Sandy operates on the “if you have no facts, pound the table,” theory of argument.
    Saturday at 2:22pm ·
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    Bob Lamm Pounding the table is bad enough. Shouting and shouting while the other person is speaking is even worse. As we all know, anyone whose politics are left of Attila the Hun gets little air time on “balanced” FOX News. Which makes it even worse when someone like you is an invited guest but has to fight to get two uninterrupted sentences.

  4. Gloria Feldt on August 2, 2010 at 3:36 pm

    More from Facebook:
    #
    Sue Katz Good grief. Thanks for crunching the numbers and for exposing this person. Schlafly’s nothing if not persistent.
    Yesterday at 9:09am · L
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    Dianne Barker Still goes the cycle …”nothing is so sacred from man-to-man as the passing of money from hand-to-hand.” Didn’t hear a “wo” in that!!

    #
    Jon Bresler saw you, by mistake, on Fox Snews last night
    Saturday at 5:16pm ·
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    Joyce Blank Schorr Schlafly is misinformed, as always.
    Saturday at 5:33pm · · ·
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    Gloria Feldt It’s ok Jon, even some of my best friends watch Fox by mistake too. Which is why it is worthwhile to go on it.

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