Gender equality? I don’t want it

Cate Blanchett stars as the real-life Seventies housewife who tried to stop women getting the same rights as men

This extraordinary new drama recounts the true story of a well-educated, incredibly intelligent woman who rallied against equal rights, saying it would wreck family life.

Mother-of-six Phyllis Schlafly rose to prominence as a political campaigner in the early 1970s, opposing the feminist movement’s fight for the Equal Rights Amendment which gave men and women the same status in the eyes of the law.

She said: “You’re never just a housewife – there’s no more important job for a woman.”

Phyllis saw herself as the voice of the country’s 40million homemakers. And her story still resonates today, says Cate Blanchett, who plays her in this nine-part drama, which also stars Rose Byrne and Tracey Ullman.

Cate said: “She’s such a polarising figure and quite contradictory, but it’s undeniable that she was a contemporary woman who really changed the course of the American political landscape.”

Although Phyllis’s views are outdated now, she is portrayed as someone who has much to admire – especially her dogged determination and ability to stand up to men who treat her like a ‘little woman’.

Her beliefs were popular with a huge number of Americans but as the drama unfolds we see how she faced fierce opposition from a rising, vocal and powerful wave of feminism.

Phyllis started her crusade at grass-roots level, beginning her offensive from her home in Illinois. Her opponents – including journalist Gloria Steinem and congresswoman Shirley Chisholm – led their fight on a national level, through the media and the White House debating chambers. But they severely underestimated the housewife’s strength of voice and millions of supporters. Phyllis’s success, says Cate came down to the clarity of her beliefs. She claimed to represent the heart of America and speak up for the ‘moral majority’, condemning the feminist movement as ‘antifamily’. Cate said: “She was able to spell out the homemakers’ big fear, which is that their lives were going to be busted apart by the feminists.” So does the Lord of the Rings star think that, 50 years on, the world has really moved on, particularly in light of the current climate, which is still beset with issues of racism, anti-Semitism and male privilege? Cate said: “All of these achievements and advances American society has made are somehow back in the courts again. You wonder, if equality was placed as a no-brainer, basic understanding in the American culture, how different it would be in America right now?”

“She really changed the course of Amercian political landscape. Homemakers feared their lives would be busted apart by feminists.” Cate Blanchett