Midge Decter, a writer and editor who abandoned liberalism to help lay the intellectual foundation for the neoconservative movement and the so-called culture wars over feminism, gay rights, and other social issues, died on May 9 at her home in Manhattan. She was 94.

Midge Decter was in the forefront of an ideologically evolving generation of public intellectuals focused on leftist politics from the 1930s through the early 1960s. Jolted by the turbulence of the student and women’s movements, they later broke from liberals to embrace a new form of conservatism that championed traditional social values. Ms. Decter wielded her influence as editor of Harper’s and other magazines, as an author and book editor, and as a political organizer and frequent speaker.

She served on the boards of conservative think tanks, including the Heritage Foundation, the Center for Security Policy, and the Hoover Institution. In 2003, she received the National Humanities Medal from President Bush in a White House Ceremony.