Woman on the move Schlafly was an author and activist, who made it her antithetical mission to stop the ERA from becoming the 27th Amendment to the Constitution in the 1970s. After the ERA was passed by the House and Senate, it was sent to the states for ratification. This is where Schlafly's movement, STOP ERA (later renamed Eagle Forum) came in. Schlafly was able to convince conservative women that stopping the ERA was the real way to fight for their rights and that those who wanted it passed were unrelatable elites . Passing the amendment could mean women would be subject to the military draft, that same-sex marriage would exist, that same-sex bathrooms would be the norm, and that abortions would increase. She argued that it was women's right to be housewives if that was their choice (this was, for the record, not something the ERA would have outlawed).