Document 11: Dick Behn, "Antifeminism: New Conservative Force," Ripon Forum, 1 September 1977. Reprinted in National Women's Conference Official Briefing Book: Houston, Texas, November 18 to 21, 1977 (Washington, D.C.: National Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year, 1977), pp. 241-43.

Introduction

   Some media sources described the state conference proceedings as the "War Between Women." In this document, Dick Behn plays up the conflict between conservatives and pro-change groups at the NWC state and territory meetings suggesting the NWC in Houston would be "the liveliest brawl since John L. Sullivan licked Jake Kilrain in 75 bare-knuckled rounds." The Ripon Forum is the magazine of the Ripon Society that promotes a conservative policy agenda within the Republican Party.

p. 241

ANTIFEMINISM: NEW CONSERVATIVE FORCE
by Dick Behn

   While media attention focused this spring on Anita Bryant's crusade against gay rights in Florida's Dade County, a more serious and much less publicized conservative movement emerged at state conferences for the International Women's Year. Preparing for the national conference in Houston November 18-21, the state gatherings began uneventfully enough in late winter of this year, but the conferences held in June and July turned into fiercely fought conflicts between "change" and "anti-change" groups.

   The significance of these battles extends beyond the International Women's Year (IWY) becuase [sic] they presage a new coalition of "social conservative" groups. The groups range from Catholic right-to-lifers to Protestant fundamentalists to members of the Mormon Relief Society. They have demonstrated considerable skill in both coalition politics and convention plotting. This new network of anti-feminists parallels the extraordinary growth of other conservative organizations over the last two years.

   The influence of Anita Bryant's Save Our Children campaign may be relatively insignificant by itself, but could be a powerful force if teamed with the many anti-ERA, anti-abortion, anti-gun control, anti-busing groups that have proliferated along with Richard Viguerie's mailing lists. California State Sen. John Briggs (R), for example, found that he could attract a wealth of free publicity for his GOP gubernatorial campaign this spring by flying off to Miami to help Anita Bryant. Briggs tends to style himself after the mentally erational [sic] TV anchorman in the movie "Network" who says, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore." Accused of being a demagoguge [sic]. Briggs has replied, "What's a demagogue? The guy provided release for the true feelings of people who had been put down. They were mad as hell, too, but they didn't have anybody to lead them…I'm a leader. There's no denying it."

   An interesting aspect of the anti-change movement at IWY conferences was the role of male leaders. They were the ones carrying the walkie talkies at the New York Women's Meting in July. Their brightly colored gloves signaled the "right" vote at the Oklahoma conference. Male participation went one step farther in Missisippi where seven men were elected to the state's national delegation—but no blacks. Less than a dozen men were said to orchestrate that state's meeting.

   Commenting on the early July conclave in Jackson, the Greenville Delta Democrat-Times' Bill Minor wrote:

   Mississippi got a look-see last weekend in the International Women's Year conference here at a new form of militant conservatism which has emerged to replace the old-time anti-black militancy of the White Citizens Councils and the Ku Klux Klan.

   Ostensibly not racist in concept, the new far-right force apparently comes out of a strong reactionary backlash fed by religious fundamentalism, self-acclaimed patriotic organizations, and some old-time staunchly conservative political groups.

   Their overall enemy now is not the black man but ‘liberalism’ in any form, as they see it. In many instances, it is not only liberalism but what they consider non-Christian public policy and government programs

p. 242

   The anti-change coalition varies from state to state. In Mississippi the Pentecostals are a strong force and groups involved include the John Birch Society, Women for Constitutional Government and Patriotic American Youth. As Minor noted: "While it's hard these days to find persons who publicly identify with the Citizens Council or the Klan, some of the ideas of those groups are evidently being perpetrated through the new conservative coalition in Mississippi." Unfortunately, the level of discourse being fostered is hardly higher than the anti-black agitation of the 1950s and the 1960s. An Associated Press story quoted two Mississippi delegates on their reasons for involvement: "We were told in our church that ERA meant the end of marriage, that schoolbooks would show pictures of people having sex with animals, and we've got to protect our children," said Laura Huff.

   Anti-change women bridled at charges that they railroaded their views through state conventions such as the one in Montana where feminists were so overwhelmed that many walked out. Mormon women from the Church of Latter Day Saints' Relief Society were highly influential, but denied press accounts they acted under "instructions" from church officials. Anti-ERA delegate Ann Allen protested that religious affiliations were inconsequential in the anti-change coalition. She and others accused feminists of being poor losers and denounced North Dakota GOP National Committeewoman Gerridee Wheeler's role in promoting ERA at the Helena conference. Of ERA, said Allen, "it will put future generations into bondage, so to speak, while at the same time deprive them of their rights as free women."

   The role of Mormons was even more obvious in other states. In New York they were bused in by the hundreds to vote for the anti-change slate. As in several June-July conferences, organizers were overwhelmed by the anti-change delegates who appeared unexpected at the meetings—literally by the thousands. An incredible 14,000 women showed up in Salt Lake City—compared to 2,000 expected. About 4,500 showed up in Kansas—compared to 2,000 expected. An extra 2,000 showed up in Washington state where men were key anti-change leaders.

   In clear control in Utah, the overwhelming anti-change majority ran roughshod over feminists. "Its was like a war, only they had atomic weapons and we had words," Maggy Pendleton told the New York Times. "They ran the whole thing. I've never been so rudely treated in my life." A Montana woman who was a former chairperson of the Montana Right to Life Association was equally appalled: "The deliberate sabotage of the state International Women's Year Conference in Helena is an occurrence that future generations will review with shame and disbelief. It will be like the feelings today's blacks must have when they encounter historical revelations that many of their ancestors actually opposed their own emancipation."

   Even in state's where anti-change forces did not succeed, they came perilously close. Although a pro-ERA slate was elected in Washington, an anti-ERA resolution passed. And though a pro-ERA resolution passed in Kansas, 12 of the 20 national delegates elected were anti-ERA. In New York, pro-change delegates managed to win all the national spots but anti-change women took all the runnerup slots. And in Ohio, where a pro-ERA resolution was adopted by a 2-1 margin, the national delegation is 80 percent anti-abortion though they constituted only a quarter of Columbus meeting's 2,800 participants.

p. 243

   In Ohio, the Right to Life Society teamed up with representatives of the Eagle Forum, columnist Phyllis Schlafly's group. They took advantage of an underattended meeting and a large field of delegate aspirants to win delegation control. In addition to these groups, another force at these state meetings has been the Citizens Review Committee on IWY.

   According to Citizens Review Committee leader Rosemary Thomson, the group has been working to assure that representatives of all women's viewpoints are allowed to participate in the planning and policy-making for IWY. Thomson charges that feminists from the National Women's Political Caucus, the Gay Rights Task Froce [sic], the National Organization of Women and IWY have conspired to block participation of anti-ERA, anti-abortion women in planning state conferences. Such actions violates the intent of Congress in appropriating $5 million to IWY, says Thomson. "All we're asking for is fairness, "she says, adding that the actions of IWY organizers have set back the women's movement. To demonstrate her point, Sen. Jesse Helms inserted in the Congressional Record a copy of an NWPC-distributed guide to IWY organizing, entitled, "Monitoring and Mobile Operation Partnership program."

   Although Helms denounced feminist tactics for neutralizing conservative sentiment, conservative women have proven equally adept at utilizing similar strategies to exert their will. The result in many states has been to turn the conferences into battlegrounds in which the opportunity for dialogue and temperate compromises has been muted. In Hawaii, for example, the July conference was overwhelmed by an influx of Mormon women who elected a 14-member conservative slate to the national conference. Noted, "liberal" Ah Quon McElrath, "The battle might have been won by the Traditionalists at Farrington High School [where the Hawaii conference was held] because there were more of them. But it was a hollow victory indeed because we never had much of a chance to talk to each other about common problems and how we can solve them."

   The conservatives have charged they have been frozen out of IWY planning. The feminists have charged that they've refrained from participating until the last minute. Conservative columnist James J. Kilpatrick sees a conservative victory in the resulting war. Writing of the Oklahoma state conference, Kilpatrick concluded, that "the troops of Bella Abzug got scalped. In another column, he prophesied:

   Next November's International Women's Convention in Houston already is shaping up as the liveliest brawl sine John L. Sullivan licked Jake Kilrain in 75 bare-knuckled rounds. The prospect has its aspects good and bad.

   What is happening is a kind of counterrevolution within the women's revolution. For the past 10 years, the Gloria Steinems have had things pretty much their own way. Now the Phyllis Schaflys are venturing out of their kitchens. For the first time, militancy on the left is encountering militancy on the right.

   IWY thus seems to have been granted a dubious honor. It's the newest conservative rallying cry. Given the volatility of the gay rights issue, it may have been no accident that workshops on lesbianism were key battlegrounds at many state conferences. The New Right has been increasingly vociferous in its exploitation of what the Conservative Caucus' Howard Phillips calls "hot buttons": gun control, capital punishment, ERA, abortion, and the Panama Canal, With about 20 percent of the delegates to Houston the New Right has a new forum for its "hot buttons."

   

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