Feminists can’t stand the fact that a woman can reject their ideology and still be a highly accomplished, influential, intelligent individual. That explains their vindictive campaign to stop conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly from receiving an honorary degree from Washington University in St. Louis.

According to Washington University’s student newspaper, Student Life, about 50 students began meeting on Monday “to find a way to reverse the University's decision to award Schlafly a degree or, if that proves impossible, to make a statement of protest during the commencement exercises.” As the article put it, the protestors are outraged that the University actually has the nerve to honor a woman who “belittled the feminist movement.”

The feminists’ tiresome tirades about Schlafly are further proof that they have no interest in championing successful women. They simply believe all women should agree with them politically—and turn into foul-mouthed bullies when they don’t. We can rest assured the feminists will never admit the real reason for Schlafly’s honorary degree: she is the living definition of the independently successful, high-achieving woman.

Contrary to feminist mythology, Schlafly is not simply an anti-feminist. Nor is she “only a housewife.” In fact, Schlafly has a lifetime of achievement behind her. After paying her own way through college, Schlafly earned a scholarship to Harvard graduate school—where her professors gave her straight A’s and encouraged her to stay and earn a doctorate. Instead, she decided to begin her prolific career as an author and activist. The first of her 18 books, A Choice, Not an Echo, sold three million copies. The book had a major impact on the Republican Party platform, and many historians credit Schlafly for igniting the conservative movement that eventually led to Ronald Reagan’s presidency.

Thanks to the media’s relentless misinformation campaigns, few people know that Schlafly is also a foreign policy expert. Among her projects is Kissinger on the Couch, an 800-page analysis of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s policy of detente. And yet Schlafly’s intellect is mocked by feminists who specialize in such topics as “the beauty myth.” (As Ann Coulter put it, “Her very name prompts derisive hoots from Hollywood starlets who couldn't approach Schlafly's IQ if they were having brains rather than silicone injected.”)

In fact, Schlafly didn’t take on the feminist movement until relatively late in her career—but still managed to almost single-handedly defeat its most important legislation, the Equal Rights Amendment.

Before Schlafly discovered it, the ERA had steamrolled through Congress, and most Americans preferred to jump on the feminist bandwagon rather than ask questions. Schlafly defeated the ERA by pointing out that it had nothing to offer women. Feminists have never been able to disprove Schlafly’s main argument: the ERA would only revoke privileges women enjoyed, such as exemption from the military draft, while granting them no new rights. When feminists denigrated Schlafly for not having a law degree, she enrolled in law school—and graduated near the top of her class.

Part of the feminists’ resentment towards Schlafly might stem from the fact that she accomplished these things while raising six children. Throughout the sixties and seventies, many feminists pushed the idea that women needed to reject marriage and motherhood in order to become truly liberated—and are now writing depressing books about how unhappy they are. (See the book Motherhood Deferred by Anne Taylor Fleming.) Schlafly’s life story proves that committing to a husband and children doesn’t force a woman to give up her own identity. Continued...