Women’s Equality Day was declared on August 26th when U.S. Representative Bella Abzug proposed a bill to commemorate the day the 19th Amendment was made official in 1920. For those of you that need a quick history lesson, the 19th amendment granted women the right to vote. This day is so important, even in 2020 where reports of voter suppression and the attack on the USPS which affects mail ballots are present.

Mrs. America, which premiered on Hulu this past April is a miniseries that depicts the beginning of the women’s liberation movement in the seventies. It illustrates the intersectionality (or lack thereof) of race and sexuality during this wave of feminism. Today, Women’s Equality Day would be the perfect day to start watching this show.

With each episode, we are provided with a dramatized version of the real women at the front lines involved with trying to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment and on the other side, opposing it. In 1923, Alice Paul proposed The Equal Rights Amendment during the first Women’s Convention in Seneca Falls, New York. The amendment called for equality of every citizen regardless of sex. Many years of lobbying and protesting brought the amendment to Congress for at least 38 states to ratify this. Snapshots and important moments of seventies history are captured in this series.

The most interesting and salient aspect of Mrs. America (other than the phenomenal performances by everyone) is the portrayal of conservative Republican Phyllis Schlafly (Cate Blanchett) who is firmly against the ERA. With her grassroots campaigning and protesting, she managed to stop the ERA from ratifying all the 38 states in the late seventies. Through her opposition, we see the nuances of Second Wave Feminism at play here. No one is painted as perfect; everyone is gray including the liberal movement’s champion, Gloria Steinem (Rose Byrne). Schlafly is firm in her belief that the ERA will pull women away from the home and young women will be drafted into the war in the future.

Additionally, the lack of intersectionality between class, race, and sexuality are also explored on the show. In the first episode, Phyllis Schlafly says, “I’ve never been discriminated against, and I think some women like to blame sexism for their failures instead of admitting they didn’t try hard enough,” when asked her opinion about the ERA. It’s this privilege, white and even class privilege present in her comment that resonates today with women of color who are simply trying to obtain employment but can’t escape discrimination at every turn.

Today, celebrate your right to open your own credit card application, have the ability to vote, and be in the world as a woman without answering to anybody but yourself. Watch Mrs. America be outraged and informed. We don’t want history repeating itself.