February 27, 1992

Conservative columnist and commentator Phyllis Schlafly, founder of the Eagle Forum and an indefatigable opponent of the Equal Rights Amendment, spoke to a crowd of over 400 people on women’s needs for male protection. Campus groups including the Vassar Pro-Choice Coalition and Refuse and Resist protested the event with signs that proclaimed “Ain’t I A Woman?” and “We Will Not Buy B.S.”

“It’s about time we had a conservative speaker at Vassar,” said Mary Green ’92, editor of the conservative campus publication, The Spectator, which sponsored the talk. Jason Ein ’94, commented, “Phyllis Schlafly is a threat to my life and livelihood. Her perspective is one of ignorance and she fostered a lot of hatred, bias and discrimination with her talk.” The Poughkeepsie Journal