Cate Blanchett and Margo Martindale turn in pitch perfect performances as 'Mrs America' gears up for battle royale at the women's conference in Houston. Find out when Mrs America is on TV, including Series 1-Episode 7: Bella. All 92 songs featured in Mrs. America Season 1 Soundtrack, listed by episode with scene descriptions. Episode 7 opens with a scene in which Schlafly gets a pie thrown in her face by a stranger at an event. Photos by the National Archives and Records Administration and FX for Hulu. We don’t deserve Margo Martindale. I know I’ve complained about how Mrs. America organizes its episodes by character, but “Bella” shows how good the payoff can be. Abzug suggests that they appoint Betty Friedan as a commissioner and several other women, including Gloria Steinem, express their doubts about this idea, citing Friedan’s lack of support for the lesbian community. According to the book Rightward Bound: Making America Conservative in the 1970s, the Citizens’ Review Committee was established in March of 1977, just a few months before the convention, and as news of it circulated, “conservative groups, working in loose coalitions that varied from state to state, managed what were called ‘takeovers’ of several conferences including Mississippi, Alabama, Missouri, Oklahoma, Ohio, Nebraska, and Utah.”. The political movement in the 1970s on the Equal Amendment Right for women in the US. Join Slate Plus to continue reading, and you’ll get unlimited access to all our work—and support Slate’s independent journalism. In the end, Abzug and Steinem see what they are up to, but the organization is successful in rustling up support from Christian women, and they manage to win delegates in a number of states. Abzug claimed, “In some states there were disruption attempts by the ultra-right, like the Ku Klux Klan, who still want to keep their women home washing the sheets.” Such comments prompted Schlafly to publish a statement in her Eagle Forum Newsletter emphatically denouncing the allegations. In her book Divided We Stand: The Battle Over Women’s Rights and Family Values That Polarized American Politics, University of South Carolina historian Marjorie Spruill Wheeler quotes Schlafly’s denial: “This is not only false—it is ridiculous! We are fast becoming the number one independent website for streaming coverage. Episode guide, trailer, review, preview, cast list and where to stream it on demand, on catch up and download. All of this matches up with historical records. In this episode, Rosemary Thomson steps up to bat in the effort to derail the National Women’s Conference. Feeling aged and out of touch, Bella goes to visit the only activist older (and potentially less radical) than her: Betty. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words. Season 1, Episode 7 … She never showed. As this episode suggests, the Klan was particularly roused by the inclusion of gay and lesbian rights on the conference agenda. Abzug rolls her eyes, but sees the practicality in her argument; the more money spent to bus women in, the better. Of course all eagles know that there has been NO contact between any of us and the KKK, and that the KKK has done NOTHING to defeat ERA.” However, Wheeler also quotes Schlafly describing herself as “tolerant” and as saying, as she does in the episode, “I let people be against ERA for the reason of their choice.”, In the end, it is not entirely clear to what extent the stop-ERA movement was supported by the KKK, if it was at all. Opposition comes from the most unexpected places. Martindale laces Bella’s dialogue with tongues of regret. The show also makes reference at times to Abzug’s somewhat brash behavior, including in a moment when Gloria Steinem chides her for throwing coleslaw at a colleague. Our Mrs. America: Phyllis Schlafly was a national leader of the conservative movement since the publication of her best-selling 1964 book, A Choice Not An Echo . Secure its future — we need you! In an interview on the podcast Making Gay History, O’Leary discussed Costanza’s decision to keep their relationship a secret, saying, “She knew, at least for much of her career, that she could never have done what she did, could never have been Jimmy Carter’s adviser, and could never have invited gay activists to the White House if anyone knew that she was gay.”, In this episode, as Phyllis Schlafly and the anti-ERA movement gain traction among Christian groups, we begin to hear rumors of their getting support from members of the Ku Klux Klan. Midge, Bella’s former assistant, is disappointed by the committee’s lack of concern for lesbian rights. “Does it bother you that no-one calls you radical anymore?” she asks Betty, who responds by affirming that “we’re going mainstream… that’s a good thing.” For Betty, the only issue is women’s equality, and it helps to have as many people on their side as possible. Phyllis, Pamela, Rosemary, Alice, and Lottie want to stop it. The episode also contains a number of more surprising details. Hearing Betty’s argument energizes Bella, and she arrives at Gloria’s apartment with a flashlight in hand: “It’s a torch, don’t you have any imagination!” She opens up to Steinhem about her past, discussing the McGee case. Gloria, Bella and Jill put pressure on the White House to act on their proposals from the National Women's Conference. For many, this means sidelining LGBT issues. Let’s blow it up.”. 1” (this phrase is used verbatim in the episode). This matches up with history, as do the show’s references to Costanza’s biography. Eventually it is revealed that Phyl has decided to change her name to Liza in an effort to distance herself from her mother’s reputation. Phyllis Schlafly’s biography on the Eagle Forum website. Abzug comes up with a different idea. “What’s really revolutionary about a group of people in a room agreeing with each other.” The two share a moment of recognition and agree to make the event open, with the hope that they rise out of the chaos. (I assume that she does have at least one top-billed role, but the closest I could find is a TV show called, Hearing Betty’s argument energizes Bella, and she arrives at Gloria’s apartment with a flashlight in hand: “It’s a torch, don’t you have any imagination!” She opens up to Steinhem about her past, discussing. George Higgins boasted about the Klan’s influence to Florida Today, saying, “We controlled the [meeting] in Mississippi.”, Whispers about Klan involvement in the anti-ERA movement quickly spread. Phyllis has “taught them much,” they say. Granted, it is only one episode, and she shares that role with Cate Blanchett. By focusing on Alice, the episode of the convention is streamlined: all female protagonists show up, but as representations of their past episodes rather than bloating this one. All of this roughly matches up with what really happened. The real O’Leary, who died in 2005, was a prominent gay rights activist who was the co-executive director of the National Gay Task Force and later helped to found National Coming Out Day. But Phyllis’s mode is shattered when she realizes that her daughter, Phyl, has started going by Liza — something it seems she was the last to know about.