Mrs. America (2020)

REVIEW BY: ROBERT CHANDLER

MRS AMERICA is an extraordinary new FX/Hulu drama series starring Cate Blanchett about the fight for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the Constitution (essentially equal rights for women) in the 1970s in the US.

The series follows conservative activist Phyliss Schlafly, and this is what makes it interesting.

By today's standards (though even this statement can be questioned), Schlafly is the villain of the piece. An opponent of the ERA, who felt that a woman's traditional role of homemaker / mother / wife was being threatened by the movement.

And yet... and this is where Cate's performance is vital and the drama pays off... we see Schlafly treated like a second class mind by the men around her in Washington (a terrific moment in ep 1 where she is almost certainly the smartest person in the room and the most knowledgeable about the arms race, which is being discussed, and yet the guy in charge asks her if she would take notes because she has the best handwriting) and disrespected by her husband, who insists on sex when she returns from the Washington trip when all she wants to do is have a bath and rest. But she does her duty and obliges him.

Why does she put up with this AND fight against the demands of the "libbers", the women (led by Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan, played by Rose Byrne and Tracey Ullman) clamouring for equal rights?

That the series places itself at the centre of this contradiction is a strength.

Blanchett plays it beautifully. The opening scenes show Schlafly in a swimsuit parade before taking her place on a chat show, talking - with insight and not afraid to contradict the charming male host - about the arms race.

When Shlafly, at one of her women gatherings, rails against the ERA campaign and says that if women get equal rights they'll find themselves in foxholes fighting men's wars or having two jobs, one in the workplace and one raising the children at home, there are some truths there. Truths that clearly landed with her followers (and, no doubt, the men) and won the day... her campaign succeeded and the amendment was never passed.

The Equal Rights Amendment, which was first mooted in the 1920s, has yet to be added to the US constitution.

The series is being shown in the UK on BBC2.