Growing out of Phyllis Schlafly's efforts to mobilize opposition to stop ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, the Eagle Forum was founded in 1972 and quickly blossomed into one of the most influential Religious Right organizations in history. Schlafly was infamous for taking hard-line stands on political and cultural issues that were often extreme even by Religious Right standards, such as her insistence that it was impossible for husbands to rape their wives.
Led by Schlafly until her death in 2016 at the age of 92, the Eagle Forum underwent a fracture shortly before her death as several board members, including her own daughter, sought to gain control of the organization stemming from conflict over Schlafly's endorsement of Donald Trump.
