Mrs America and her fight for our rights!

The days when people used to think that moving from film to TV was a sign that an actor’s career was on the slide are long gone.

Far too many people have managed to show that you can star in prestigious small-screen projects and still pack them in at the box office.

But many viewers were still intrigued to hear that double Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett had signed up for the new drama series Mrs America, especially as it’s relatively rare to see her on the box. And she’s not the only notable name among the cast. Blanchett’s fellow Australian actress-turned-Hollywood star Rose Bryne also appears, along with Uzo Aduba, Elizabeth Banks, Margo Martindale, Tracey Ullman, and Sarah Paulson.

So, what is it abouts Mrs America that convinced them all to sign up? Well, it could be that it tackles a fascinating period in recent American history and gives them the chance to play some truly remarkable women.

Although some characters and scenes have been fictionalised, it centres on the fight to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment and the ensuing backlash led by Phyllis Schlafly (Blanchett).

She believed that by becoming equal to men in law, women would lose some of their privileges, including separate bathrooms and the right not to register for the military draft, and that it would disadvantage housewives. She said: “A woman should have the right to be in the home as a wife and mother.”

Her views made her controversial but, as the series will show, they also paved the way for the rise of the so-called Moral Majority.

Blanchett told Collider: “[Schlafly] is such a polarizing figure and quite contradictory, but it’s undeniable that she was a contemporary woman who really changed the course of the American political landscape.”

However, the actress is keen to point out that the series isn’t just about Schlafly. She says: “It’s not a documentary. It’s also not a biopic or a bio series on Phyllis Schlafly. It’s about the various sections of the women’s movement. There was an equal and opposite traditional women’s movement, as there was the feminist women’s movement.”

With that in mind, the series will also look at the events of the perspective of other key women of the era, including second-wave feminists Gloria Steinem (Byrne) and Betty Friedan (Ullman), and Shirley Chisholm (Aduba), the first black woman to be elected to the United States Congress.

The first episode though, introduces us to Schlafly, who has made her own runs for Congress, but, in the midst of harassment from male colleagues and a lack of support from her husband, she decides against trying again. Instead, she decides to take on a new campaign. The second instalment of the double bill look at Steinem, who decides to use her reputation as the editor of Ms to fight for women’s rights. But while the feminist writer is battling for equal pay and access to abortions, Schlafly is leading her own grassroots campaign.

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