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6 The War on Women in the United States the public’s perception of her in terms of her likability and thus in terms of her role as a woman. Stereotypes of Women’s Rights as a Societal Threat In the United States, women gaining rights such as equal pay, maternity leave, or reproductive freedom is often framed as a threat to American values such as religious freedom, family solidity, and social stability. One example can be found in the case of Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores (2014), where Hobby Lobby’s owners objected to providing certain types of contraception on reli- gious grounds. The company refused to include contraceptive options in its health care plans, as required by the Affordable Care Act, based on its claim- ing to adhere to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). In a 5–4 decision, the Court ruled that not only the religious beliefs of Hobby Lobby’s corporate owners deserved legal recognition, but also the corporate interests were seen as more important than the health needs of the company’s employ- ees. This means that religious freedom comes before women’s choices about their reproductive rights (Liptak, 2014). Many critics have argued that the Court used the RFRA to privilege the interests of persons who run corpo- rations and undermine the freedom of women, which casts women’s choices about reproduction as a threat to religious freedom (Melling, 2015). Another example was the debate over the ratifi cation of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), passed by Congress in 1972 and then sent to the states for ratifi cation, where it languished for almost 50 years. The wording of the ERA was simple: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex” (Mac Kinnon, 1991). Opponents of the ERA, organized by Phyllis Schlafl y, feared that it would erode family values and destabilize society. They argued that the passage of the ERA would lead to men abandoning their families, unisex toilets, the legalization of gay marriage, and women being drafted. Through their protests, Phyllis Schlafl y and her colleagues were able to hinder the ratifi ca- tion the ERA, hence communicating the message that equality under the law for women would undermine social stability and threaten American values (Freeman, 1993). Moreover, in the United States, women’s rights are often framed as a threat to other basic human rights, the argument being that one comes at the expense of the other. This is particularly poignant in the context of Ameri- can capitalistic society. One of the underlying assumptions of capitalism is economic competition that often results in one group profi ting while another suffers losses. Just as human rights are perceived as resources in a capital- ist system, women’s rights are viewed as fi nite resources over which various factions must compete. Hence, the recognition of women’s rights is assumed