Mrs. America Marches Boldly to the Front of the Quarantine Queue

(Bloomberg) -- FX on Hulu’s nine-episode Mrs. America begins in the early 1970s, when the feminist movement is nearing the peak of its power. Its figureheads are ascendant: Gloria Steinem is a global celebrity, Bella Abzug is a first-term congresswoman from New York, and Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress, has initiated her run for president.

Most important, women’s rights groups are on the cusp of achieving real results. The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which would enshrine gender equality in the U.S. Constitution, has already been passed by Congress; all that’s left is for the bill to be ratified by 38 states over the next seven years.

And that’s when Mrs. America’s antihero emerges in the form of Phyllis Schlafly, an upper-class Midwestern ideologue who pivots from right-wing national security crusades to opposing the ERA. Her motives, the series suggests, are less than pure: She doesn’t so much care about women’s rights (or lack thereof) as she does about creating a conservative base for her own political aspirations.

Like most of the show’s characters, Schlafly (Cate Blanchett) is based on a real person of the same name. A conservative firebrand for more than 60 years, Schlafly died on Sept. 5, 2016, a day before her last book, The Conservative Case for Trump, hit the shelves. Steinem, played by Rose Byrne, is very much alive and still active in women’s rights; Chisholm (Uzo Aduba), who died in 2005, eventually left Congress and became a professor at Mount Holyoke; and Abzug (a magnificent Margo Martindale) stayed active in politics until her death in 1998.

The cast is rounded out by Sarah Paulson, who plays one of Schlafly’s (fictional) acolytes; Elizabeth Banks as the Republican feminist Jill Ruckelshaus; and a superb Tracey Ullman, who plays Betty Friedan, author of the second-wave feminism bible The Feminine Mystique. 

The show, created by Dahvi Waller and executive produced by a team including Blanchett, bursts out of the gate as an exquisitely rendered historical drama. Most of its episodes are based, if only loosely, on real events, with ongoing storylines—internal divisions, personal dramas, external national sociopolitical events—woven throughout. The costumes are pitch-perfect, the accents regional, the cars massive, and the cigarettes omnipresent.

Early episodes are tilted toward Schlafly’s side of the story, as her evolution on the ERA sets the stage for a showdown. Eventually, the center of gravity shifts to the feminists, because that’s where most of the action takes place. One episode deals with Chisholm’s failed presidential run; another is based on the first National Women’s Conference, which is organized by Abzug.

As the series develops and the fight to ratify the ERA drags on, and as Schlafly begins to pull gender equality from the political center into a broader conservative backlash against social liberalism, Mrs. America begins to feel anything but historical. The show is dressed up as a period drama, sure. But the issues—abortion rights, equal pay, protections against harassment, gay rights—are still being litigated today.

And yet, no matter how serious the issues, Mrs. America never lets itself get dragged down by moralizing or even caricature. The real-life Schlafly was camp incarnate (I highly recommend watching some ’70s-era debates between her and Friedan, which can be found on YouTube); Blanchett, however, infuses her own character with pathos and depth. This is a bright, ambitious woman, we’re led to understand, who’s using the tools available to her in a conservative, men’s world.

It’s a paradox that’s underscored early and often: Schlafly, who claims to be protecting the rights of housewives everywhere, is more of a feminist than many of the women she’s opposing. “She might be one of the most liberated women in America,” Abzug says to a group of Schlafly’s housewife-cum-activist supporters. “Has she taught you how to lobby legislators? Has she taught you how to draft a press release, a speech? Answer reporters’ questions, give a television interview? How to create a budget? Balance it?” Schlafly’s supporters answer in the affirmative, and Abzug smiles. “Congratulations,” she says. “You’re working girls.”

It’s not a spoiler to say that many women’s rights landmarks were eventually watered down or delayed. Mrs. America, though, is a tribute rather than a dirge for women’s lib. Its proponents are smart, funny, and, most crucially, willing to put everything on the line for basic equality.

“Power concedes nothing,” Chisholm says. “If we don’t demand true equality, we are always going to be begging the men [in power] for a few crumbs of the pie, trading women for an empty promise.”

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