It united and empowered the women's movement, it got women from all over the country, from small towns and rural areas as well as big cities, to be part of this major network of feminism, made them determined to work to realize these goals - and at the same time, it led inadvertently to the unification and galvanizing of a conservative women's movement that also went on, very determined. Both groups end up leaving Houston united, excited and determined to have a major impact on politics in the future.

Historian Marjorie J. Spruill explains how a schism over abortion and LGBT rights splintered the women's movement at the height of its influence in the late 1970s, setting the stage for the Christianization of the Republican Party, and four generations of conservative women's support for and influence within the GOP, from Phyllis Schlafly to Kellyanne Conway.

Marjorie is author of Divided We Stand: The Battle Over Women's Rights and Family Values That Polarized American Politics from Bloomsbury.