Cate Blanchett is fantastic as Phyllis Schlafly, the charismatic leader of the grassroots conservative movement in the 1970s.
Remember when feminism was ascendant? Yeah, me neither. It’s been a rough few decades for the gals. But fresh in my memory is how the United States in 2016 — through a combination of fear mongering, race-baiting, and reality TV diversion tactics — elected a president who is on the record bragging about sexually assaulting women.
How did we get here?
The new nine-episode television series Mrs. America (Hulu) provides robust context for the current moment. It follows key figures in the feminist movement through the failed struggle in the 1970s to get enough states to ratify the most basic of constitutional guarantees to equality: the Equal Rights Amendment. Central to this story is Phyllis Schlafly, the conservative force of nature who organized homemakers into a political force that thwarted the ERA and set the stage for decades of “family values” politics.
As Schlafly, Cate Blanchett is a powerhouse. She captures the nuances and contradictions of this powerful woman who could mesmerize crowds and articulate and manipulate women’s fears that they would be drafted into wars or divorced and left without alimony. She slyly courted and enlisted members of the John Birch Society and the Ku Klux Klan while managing to maintain a squeaky clean image in the press. She was a master of spin, and looked pretty and put together as she lied to feed the narrative: Feminists are lesbian, commie baby-killers out to get the “real Americans.” She developed vast mailing lists, which eventually made their way to Ronald Reagan. And we know how that story went.
In Mrs. America, the conservatives flock to and orbit around Schlafly. But equally strong in this series are the feminists, who each get a dedicated episode, including one-time presidential candidate Shirley Chisholm (a tour de force performance by Uzo Aduba); colorful and outspoken Congresswoman Bella Abzug (Margo Martindale); the godmother of feminism and author of The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan (Tracy Ullman); and the intense and glamorous founder of Ms., Gloria Steinem (Rose Byrne).
The series takes artistic liberties with history, compressing and pumping up certain storylines. One of the most successful threads features a composite character (named after a real anti-ERA activist Alice Macray (Sarah Paulson), who starts out a Schlafly sycophant and experiences an awakening while wandering the 1977 National Women’s Conference in a drug and alcohol-induced haze (the alcohol was intentional, the drugs less so). Another chilling episode charts the rise of Reagan and his efforts to harness the power of Schlafly’s legions.
The show’s writers are adept at exploring the contradictions and sticky points, and exposing the warts and flaws of the leaders of both feminist and anti-feminist movements. Schlafly herself was a walking contradiction. In many ways, she embodied the aspirations of the feminist movement. She earned a master’s degree in government from Radcliffe and a law degree from Washington University in St. Louis. Before taking up political organizing she was a well-respected defense hawk who wrote books on the dangers of arms control treaties. She raised six children, yes, but with ample help from her beleaguered and uncredited sister-in-law and a domestic worker, Willie B. Reed (Novie Edwards). A truly radical television series would focus at least an episode on this Black woman, who, like so many others, raised the children of white people who change the world.
The show also touches on, but doesn’t delve into, some of the fissures in the feminist movement that have widened into chasms today. Friedan was notorious for undermining lesbians’ struggle for equality; and many feminists asked Black women to put important issues aside to prioritize the ERA and abortion rights. We witness key moments of compromise and assimilation that helped shape today’s debates. We also see moments of hope and deflation as women’s aspirations for equality are continually dashed. It’s not just the feminists. The conservative women, too, face numerous obstacles when it comes to having their voices heard and respected.
Mrs. America is not meant to be an accurate historical reenactment, but is a binge-worthy series and a good use of your COVID-19 couch time. If we want to understand the culture and politics of today, it’s imperative to understand those who came before us.
Phyllis Schlafly died on Sept. 5, 2016. One day later, her final book, The Conservative Case for Trump was published. Let that sink in.
