Popular entertainment can often work as a source of historical data, if not always of historical fact. Endless works of fiction are "based on" or "inspired by" a "true story."Mrs. America is a new TV miniseries set in the 1970s about the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). Whether you have watched the show or plan to, Mrs. America serves as a provocative springboard for historical research, and though the subject matter ought to be as common to American minds as the Vietnam War or Watergate, it isn’t. If Watergate confirmed for American paranoiacs that secret government conspiracies were real, then the failure to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment confirmed what most women already knew for the last two centuries: it’s a man’s world, and not only do men want to keep it that way, but plenty of women do, too.   

The show stars Cate Blanchett as Phyllis Schlafly, an Illinois activist-housewife who led a viral coast-to-coast campaign that succeeded in garnering the support of a multitude of American females who prevented the amendment’s ratification by the required 38 U.S. states. A move to remove the deadline for ratification was recommended in Congress just this past January, 2020, but still needs Senate approval, and will likely end up being decided in federal court. 

Is the ERA still relevant? Is Mrs. America just a work of fictionalized history? Earlier this year, the 2020 Global Gender Gap Report from the World Economic Forum, which "ranks progress toward equality in 153 countries around the world" based on "educational attainment, health and survival, economic participation and opportunity, and political empowerment," placed the U.S. in a "disappointing 53rd place, compared to 25th place for Mexico and 19th place for Canada." History cannot repeat itself if it has not first had the chance to become history.

TV History

Mrs. America is populated with the female activists, politicians, intellectuals, editors, writers, and religious leaders involved in the fight over ratification of the ERA, which, according to the exact language of the Amendment itself, sought to guarantee that "equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex." Opponents of the amendment—shepherded by Schlafly—believed that the disadvantages for women which the amendment sought to eradicate were instead protections against an unnatural social equality. Groups like Christians for Good Government and Operation Wake-Up made claims against the ERA both exaggerated and false. For example, according to the fringe group John Birch Society, the ERA would “void laws requiring a man to support his wife and family.” Likewise, removing legal distinctions between the sexes would lead to men and women sharing public bathrooms; make women eligible for the military draft; abolish "dependent wife" benefits under Social Security, which treated the role of housewife as if a paid job in the workforce; and potentially hold a wife accountable for alimony and child support in the case of a divorce.   

It was both a harrowing and rollicking time, and Mrs. America captures a certain energy—from the Ms. magazine launch party at the Guggenheim Museum, to Schlafly devising a way to accept the support of racist hate groups while not directly aligning with them in public. There is plenty of history to cross-check, and resources at the New York Public Library serve as a good way to follow up on people and events portrayed in the show. Viewers interested in pursuing their own research have a slew of resources as multitudinous as Bella Abzug’s hat collection.

How To Use This Guide

Each section of this guide highlights a group of characters depicted in Mrs. America based on an actual individual, and provides links and descriptions of NYPL collections and databases where one might find materials relevant to that person. The characters are broken up into “Politics” and “Writers,” followed by a section related in general to the Equal Rights Amendment. 

POLITICS

Phyllis Schlafly

The centerpiece character of Mrs. America is depicted in three dimensions and without prejudice. The subject matter speaks for itself and the treatment of history is as fair as historiographical television can manage. A viewer sympathetic to Schlafly’s political views might be just as taken by the performance of Cate Blanchett as viewers who are revolted by the Eagle Forum (the political action group formed by Schlafly to unify the different and opposing voices within the anti-ERA movement). Would the ERA have been ratified by the required 38 states without the blockading determination of Phyllis Schlafly? That might be one specific question to use to pursue researching the ERA. What was the rhetoric used?  How did these women mobilize against what appeared to be their own interests as American females? 

• Keyword search U.S. newspaper databases in the date range 1970-1980, in addition to performing author searches for Schlafly.
• Material in NYPL collections authored by Schlafly, and where she appears as a subject heading.
• Explore primary sources related to Phyllis Schlafly by searching Archive Grid, a database of archival location information and links to individual repositories.​

Shirley Chisholm

The first African American woman elected to Congress (1969-1983), Shirley Chisholm described herself instead as the "first black woman Congressman." She represented the 12th Congressional District in New York, which included the neighborhood Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, where she lived. The district was 70% African American, and women outnumbered men in registered voters 13,000 to 10,000. Today, Shirley Chisholm State Park is a 407-acre public ecosystem overlooking New York Bay, and a monument devoted to Chisholm is planned for Prospect Park. Chisholm ran for a seat that was created in Brooklyn as a result of the population count of the region in the 1960 census—a stark revealing fact that lays bare the impact of participation in the U.S Census. "The new district was part of a court-mandated reapportionment plan that was considerably redrawn to highlight Bedford-Stuyvesant." Her campaign slogan, "Unbought and Unbossed," refers to an initial lack of support by Democratic brass. “Never before in the history of Kings County,” Chisholm is quoted in a 1969 NY Times profile, “did a county leader throw the choice of Congressman to the people.”

To begin researching Shirley Chisholm:

• Browse the Congressional Serial Set under the section “person” and then select Shirley Chisholm under “C”.
• Keyword search ProQuest African-American Newspapers in the date range Shirley Chisholm was active in politics.
• Likewise, African American Periodicals, 1825-1995 (Readex).
• Material in NYPL collections authored by Shirley Chisholm.
• Material in NYPL collections related to Shirley Chisholm.
• See the Libguide Black Feminism Introductory Research Guide: Audio put together by librarians at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
• Also  see the NYPL research guide Researching Black Heritage with NYPL's E-Resources.

Bella Abzug

A civil rights lawyer and the first Jewish woman elected to Congress, Bella Abzug won the 19th district in 1970, which area covered a section of Manhattan south of West 83rd Street to a part of the Lower East Side (where Abzug campaigned in a sound truck with Barbara Streisand). Like Shirley Chisholm, Abzug’s political career was shaped by reapportionment based on population numbers in the US census.  But unlike Chisholm, the effect was negative. When the 19th district was later absorbed into the 20th District, represented by William F. Ryan, a Democrat rival, she lost the election. Ryan was a progressive liberal with a lauded track record on civil rights. He used the term "invasion" to characterize Abzug’s attempt to run in the remapped district. When Ryan succumbed to cancer three months later, Abzug was chosen to run in a general election to replace him, won, and was reelected two years later.

• Like researching Shirley Chisholm, browse the Congressional Serial Set.
• Transcript of an oral history with Bella Abzug conducted by the American Jewish Committee and made available at NYPL Digital Collections.
• Materials in NYPL collections with Bella Abzug included as a subject heading.
• Materials in NYPL collections authored by Bella Abzug.
• There are thousands of newspaper articles where Bella Abzug is featured dating between the 1950s and 1980s available in digitized New York newspaper databases.

Florynce Kennedy 

Like many of the other characters depicted in the show, Florynce Kennedy was a lawyer by trade.  She was one of eight women and the only African American entering Columbia Law School in 1948, and graduated in 1951. Her practice spanned from estate law, representing probate actions over post mortem royalties owed jazz musicians Charlie Parker and Billie Holliday, to both defending officers of the NYPD, and victims of NYPD abuses, which included herself when she was arrested in 1965 for attempting to pass a police barricade to get to her home on East 48th Street after a gas main explosion. Kennedy was put in handcuffs while white men were allowed through the barricade to make their train back to Connecticut at Grand Central Terminal. As a consumer advocate, “Flo” Kennedy founded the Media Workshop in 1966 to "deal with racism in media and advertising." She agitated in support of decriminalizing abortion, and founded the Feminist Party, under which party Shirley Chisholm ran for president in 1972. Conflating patriarchal venereal disease in reference to excessive military spending, Kennedy advocated for curing "Pentagonorrhea."  

In addition to using the newspaper and biographical resources described above:

• Color Me Flo: My Hard Life and Good Times.
• Read this biography of Florynce Kennedy, available online with a library card: Florynce "Flo" Kennedy: The Life of a Black Feminist Radical.
• Additional material in NYPL collections with Kennedy listed as an author.
• Floryance Kennedy Papers at the Harvard Library.

WRITERS  

Betty Friedan

Played by Tracey Ullman in Mrs. America, Betty Friedan became a headline personality and seminal cultural figure as the author of The Feminine Mystique. "In the fifteen years after World War II,” Friedan writes," "this mystique of feminine fulfillment became the cherished and self-perpetuating core of contemporary American culture." Friedan’s examination of the midcentury perception of American women revealed a Bride of Frankenstein creation patched together from advertising, big business, pop morality, and the semiotics of patriarchy. Notably, Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique as a scholar in the NYPL Allen Room, which arrangement provides authors under book contract an intensive use and access to NYPL research collections.

For more on the career and writings of Betty Friedan: 

• Search Friedan in the database Gale Biography in Context.
• Books by Betty Friedan.
• Find articles by Betty Friedan in the database Academic Search Premier—which includes Time, Humanist, American Behavioral Scientist, Good Housekeeping, and Newsweek.  Do a keyword search for “Betty Friedan” and then arrange the results by “Author” and scroll through to letter F.
• Similarly—and with all of the writers profiled in this post—perform an author search in the Women’s Magazine Archive at ProQuest, which is available from home with a library card.
• Research Guide on Betty Friedan by the Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

Gloria Steinem

Arguably the most recognized American activist in support of women’s rights since the late 1960s, Gloria Steinem founded Ms. magazine. Issues of Ms. published in the 1970s are only available onsite at the central library at W. 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue—the run is not digitized. Steinem continues to publish and according to her website spent every day in April writing under the quarantine.      

• Browse materials authored or edited by Gloria Steinem, including film and video.
• Articles and citations in ProQuest Research Library, available from home with a library card. After finding a citation that is not available full-text in ProQuest, browse the NYPL Find E-Journals By Title for a possible digital copy.
• As above with Betty Friedan—and all other published writers referenced in this guide—use Gale Biography in Context, and find articles with an author search in the database Academic Search Premier.

Lottie Beth Hobbs

Portrayed in the television show as a deer-hunting mother hen Texan Baptist evangelical racist deaconess of power, Lottie Beth Hobbs wrote books that supported her religious and political beliefs with covers designed like Walmart prayer cards.  Unfortunately, these volumes have fallen outside the collection development purview of New York Public Library.

• Search Newspapers.com_available from home with a library card_for select regional newspapers in the era of the ERA to explore where Hobbs was mentioned in articles. 
• Search the scholarly journal database JSTOR for articles on the culture wars that led to the administration of Ronald Reagan in that period of ancient history known as the 1980s.  
• Also, browse titles in the NYPL catalog using the below suggested subject headings: Christianity and politics -- United States -- History | Evangelicalism -- United States -- History -- 20th century | Conservatism -- United States -- History -- 20th century.   

RESEARCH

In addition to the above writers and politicians, researchers might also use newspaper and magazine databases to follow-up on two other prominent characters in Mrs. America. Jill Ruckelshaus was a Republican feminist and presiding officer of the National Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year in 1975, which authored a detailed report on discrimination based on sex that set the stage for the National Women’s Conference in Houston, TX, in 1977. At the other end of the firing line, Rosemary Thomson led the International Women’s Year Citizens’ Review Committee in support of anti-feminists at the Conference. In the administration of Ronald Reagan, Thomson was executive director on women’s educational programs for the National Advisory Council, resigning after two years apparently because she was even too anti-feminist for 1980s conservatives. 

Equal Rights Amendment / Subject Resources

• Keyword search the hundreds of academic and scholarly books and articles at Project Muse, which offers downloadable PDFs of book chapters.
• Browse the Subjects section of the Congressional Serial Set for sessions relating to womens’ rights and issues involving gender.
• Explore researching the precedent for the ERA in the Milstein Division’s research guide How To Find Your Suffragette Ancestor.
• Explore the subject in the database Credo Reference.
• The Harper's Bazaar Archive.
• Life Magazine Digital Archive.
• Women’s Magazine Archive.
• Archives of Sexuality and Gender.
• “Women’s Rights Movement” at the American History database by ABC-CIO.
• 2020 Memorandum for the General Counsel of the Department of Justice on the requirements for an extension of the ERA ratification deadline.

NYPL Subject Headings

Though some subject headings can be problematic because the initial cataloging was done in unwoke times, below are a handful on female activism and the ERA—some with links to government publications—to use when browsing the NYPL catalog:

• Women political activists -- United States.
• Women -- Political activity -- United States.
• Feminists -- United States.
• Women’s Rights -- United States.
• Equal Rights Amendments -- United States

Select Bibliography

• New York Times
• New York Amsterdam News
• Washington Post
• Daily News
• Equal rights for men and women 1971: hearings before Subcommittee No. 4.
• Credo Reference
• Biography in Context
• American Decades Primary Sources