History Series / MrsAmerica

* DomesticViolence: There are a few cases of this.
** Fred to Phyllis, he often belittles her intelligence to her face and she has to use manipulation to get what she wants, the first episode ends with [[MaritalRapeLicense him raping her]]; she plays it up in public in speeches where she said she has her husband's permission to be there.

->''"They say that women are like teabags; you don't know their strength until they get into hot water."''

* MsFanservice: InUniverse, this is (perhaps surprisingly) how we first meet Phyllis of all people. She is kitted out in nothing but a stars and stripes two piece swimsuit and a mega-watt smile while being paraded around in front a bunch of overwhelmingly male Republican party members at a fundraiser for Senator Phil Crane. Senator Crane himself does nothing to hide the fact that he enjoys the view, sleazily telling Phyllis to "please wear that" when they arrange to meet again, in front of his own wife no less.

* {{Housewife}}: What most of the STOP ERA women are and what Phyllis pretends to be, while working as a political lobbyist, activist and writer and delegating childcare to her sister-in-law and the housework to her staff.

* {{Meganekko}}: On both sides Gloria and Rosemary, who are both attractive women (with the press focusing more on the former) and both glasses.

* ProperlyParanoid: Shirley Chisholm, somewhat jokingly, tells Flo Kennedy she sometimes wonders if the Secret Service detail assigned to her are really keeping an eye on her. Given the events of Watergate and J. Edgar Hoover using manipulative tactics to smear or induce suicidal ideation on Civil Rights leaders, she has every right to be paranoid).

* SeventiesHair: The bouffants and updos Jill, Phyllis, Rosemary, and Shirley (along with the STOP ERA followers) that are holdovers from the 1960s, Gloria's and Alice's glossy long locks, Phil Crane's dry look, the girls haircuts at the Mother-Daughter luncheon, the afros of black feminists, Betty Friedan's shag cut, and a young college student's Dorothy Hamill cut.

* BadBoss: Phyllis in "Shirley" to both her black maid and to Alice. When her maid is going through the canned food supplies in the bunker to purge the expired ones, the maid tells Phyllis she believes the stores put those expiration dates to sell more cans, Phyllis tells her that she can keep them then, the implication that while they are not good enough for the white Schlafly family that they are adequate for her maid and her family. Also she is manipulative of her followers including Alice when the younger woman objects to a Southern leader's open racism (telling Alice to tell her off) while Phyllis uses this as a means to have her cake and eat it-disavow the racism but have the support of white Southern women.
* BeautyInversion: [[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0805476/ John Slattery]]has been given a prosthetic to [[https://compote.slate.com/images/0241920f-15d3-43af-8c8e-b5b66b1cbbde.jpeg?width=780&height=520&rect=1560x1040&offset=0x0 make his nose look bumpier]] like Fred Schafly did in real life and made to look older and less remarkable than his usual SilverFox looks; Creator/TraceyUllman is made to look frumpier as [[https://i.ytimg.com/vi/S-NfNfTOx34/maxresdefault.jpg Betty Friedan]] while Creator/MelanieLynskey covers up her girlish looks and curvy figure in matronly clothes and aviator glasses to play [[https://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/g32132531/mrs-america-cast-vs-real-life/ Rosemary Thom]]. And while Jill Ruckelshaus and Phyllis weren't ugly, Creator/ElizabethBanks and Creator/CateBlanchett certainly de-glammed [[https://www.eonline.com/ap/photos/30738/mrs-america-cast-who-s-playing-who/1011713 their]] [[https://www.eonline.com/ap/photos/30738/mrs-america-cast-who-s-playing-who/1011709 looks]] to play them.

* CompositeCharacter: Phyllis's friend Alice isn't a real person and was created to represent an amalgamation of what your average Joe Republican woman felt at the time.

** The Ms. Magazine offices have a daycare where children play while their mothers work, rectifying somewhat the conflicts brought by this trope.
* FeminineWomenCanCook: One of the tactics the STOP ERA team does is bake breads and cakes and make jams to bring to politicians to sway them in their favor in support of "traditional homemakers".
* FoxNewsLiberal: Jill Ruckelshaus is a real person and in the show, as in real life, she was the Republican face of the ERA. She worked in both the Nixon and Ford administrations as a women's rights advisor.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Every major character besides Alice is a real person. Even some of the minor characters are real people like Senators Barry Goldwater and George [=McGovern=] who both unsuccessfully ran for president (in 1964 and 1972 respectively).

* {{Housewife}}: What most of the STOP ERA women are and Phyllis pretends to be this, while working as a lobbyist and activist and writer and delegating childcare to her sister-in-law and housework to her staff.
* {{Hypocrite}}: The show portrays Phyllis as such. She's a very intelligent, educated woman who works outside the home despite the fact that she preaches that women shouldn't do such. She also says that a woman’s first priority is to care for her home and children but she has household help and relies on her sister-in-law as a proto-nanny to raise her kids.
* InsistentTerminology: Phyllis doesn't take kindly to be called "Ms.", insisting that she's married and should be called "Mrs."

* {{Meganekko}}: On both sides Gloria and Rosemary, both attractive women (with the press focusing more on the former) and wearing glasses.
* NoPartyGiven: Averted. Phyllis and co. are explicitly Republicans while most of the ERA Now ladies are explicitly Democrats. Jill is the Republican among the latter group as it’s bi-partisan on paper.

* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: Alice(CompositeCharacter created for the audience to relate to), she's very much into StayInTheKitchen attitudes and even is homophobic, but is disgusted at the Southern racism she observes in "Shirley".

* PowerHair: Phyllis and her followers have elaborately styled bouffants and updos that mimic this style; Shirley Chisholm does keep her hair in such a manner while Jill has a more relaxed version (but poofier version).
* PrettyInMink: Gloria wears some furs for a launch party for Ms. Magazine with a psychedelic mini dress.
* ProperlyParanoid: Shirley Chisholm, somewhat jokingly, tells Flo Kennedy she sometimes wonders if the Secret Service detail assigned to her are really keeping an eye on her (given the events of Watergate and J. Edgar Hoover using manipulative tactics to smear or induce suicidal ideation on Civil Rights leaders, she has every right to be paranoid).
* RealWomenDontWearDresses: This trope is a smear leveled by the STOP ERA ladies against the feminists, who are often dressed feminine albeit in pants and skirts. [[SoBeautifulItsACurse Gloria suffers this trope]] as male establishment leaders see her merely as a beautiful young woman and even some of her allies are embittered that Gloria with her miniskirts and good looks captured the media's attention rather than the substance of their ideas.
* SassyBlackWoman: Averted, the famously outspoken Flo Kennedy and the "unbought and unbossed" Shirley Chisholm are depicted as full characters with different layers and they grapple with the insensitivity of their white peers and racism.
* ShesGotLegs: Gloria is openly referred to by the press not only for her feminist beliefs but especially for her beauty and her long legs in miniskirts.
** The middle-aged (and mother of several children) Phyllis wears a curve hugging two piece swimsuit in the American flag for a function for Phil Crane.

* SeventiesHair: The bouffants and updos Jill, Phyllis, Rosemary, and Shirley (along with the STOP ERA followers) that are holdovers from the 1960s, Gloria's and Alice's glossy long locks, Phil Crane's dry look, the girls haircuts at the Mother-Daughter luncheon, Betty Friedan's shag cut, and a young college student's Dorothy Hamill cut.

* StayInTheKitchen: Phyllis of all people, deals with this from her husband who sometimes can be demeaning and unsupportive of her and even in spaces with male peers, they have her take notes like a secretary.

* BeautyInversion: [[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0805476/ John Slattery]]has been given a prosthetic to [[https://compote.slate.com/images/0241920f-15d3-43af-8c8e-b5b66b1cbbde.jpeg?width=780&height=520&rect=1560x1040&offset=0x0 make his nose look bumpier]] like Fred Schafly did in real life and made to look older and less remarkable than his usual SilverFox looks; Creator/TraceyUllman is made to look frumpier as [[https://i.ytimg.com/vi/S-NfNfTOx34/maxresdefault.jpg Betty Friedan]] while Creator/MelanieLynskey covers up her girlish looks and curvy figure in matronly clothes and aviator glasses to play [[https://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/g32132531/mrs-america-cast-vs-real-life/ Rosemary Thom]].

* PowerHair: Phyllis and her followers have elaborately styled bouffants and updos that mimic this style; Shirley Chisholm does keep her hair in such a manner while Jill has a more relaxed version.

''Mrs. America'' is a 2020 mini-series developed by [[Creator/FXNetworks FX]] that aired on sister streaming service Creator/{{Hulu}}. The series revolves around the 1970s fight to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment that was eventually came up three states short of ratification [[note]] In January 2020, Virginia became the last state but the question on whether or not the original 1982 deadline can be extended or if states who've rescinded can legally do so is being fought out in court[[/note]] because of the work by a woman named [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllis_Schlafly Phyllis Schlafly]]. Creator/CateBlanchett stars as Schlafly and the show is created and developed by Canadian writer Dahvi Waller.

The series starts in 1971 and the aftermath of the 1970 midterms when the Republican Party is in its weakest Congressional position since the height of the Great Depression and Schlafly gets brought in to help the party reorganize. A defense expert by trade, Schlafly gets embroiled in the fight against the ERA when she decides to run for Congress again. The party wants to get some sort of concession to the feminist movement (the ERA was officially introduced that same year) but Schlafly makes it her life's mission to stop it. The rest is history.

The rest of the main cast is rounded out by Creator/RoseByrne as ERA proponent/feminist activist Gloria Steinem, Uzo Aduba as Shirley Chisholm (the first black woman ever elected to Congress), and Creator/ElizabethBanks as Republican ERA supporter Jill Ruckelshaus.

* EveryoneHasStandards: Alice is horrified for find out that the southern chapters of STOP ERA have explicitly racist language in their charters.
* FamilyVersusCareer: Phyllis is often pulled between the demands of her husband to stay home and her work, yet she preaches the importance of being a homemaker and mother as being the chief roles for women.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Every major character besides Alice is a real person.

* InsistentTerminology: Schlafly doesn't take kindly to be called "Ms.", insisting that she's married and should be called "Mrs."
* NiceHat: Bella Abzug, like in real-life, was seen wearing different hats to go with her clothing.

* NoPartyGiven: Averted. Phyllis and co. are explicitly Republicans while most of the ERA Now ladies are explicitly Democrats. Jill is the Republican among the latter group as the group is nominally bi-partisan.

* NoPartyGiven: Averted. Phyllis and co. are explicitly Republicans while most of the ERA Now ladies are explicitly Democrats. Jill is the Republican among the latter group as the group is nominally bi-partisan.

* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: Alice, she's very much into StayInTheKitchen attitudes and even is homophobic, but is disgusted at the Southern racism she observes in "Shirley".

* AllStarCast: Creator/CateBlanchett (Phyllis), [[Series/MadMen John Slattery]] (Fred Schlafly), Creator/RoseByrne (Gloria), Creator/ElizabethBanks (Jill), Creator/TraceyUllman (Betty), [[Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack Uzo Aduba]] (Shirley), [[Series/Reno911 Nie]][[Series/ScreamQueens cy]] [[Series/{{CLAWS}} Nash]] (Flo Kennedy), Creator/SarahPaulson (Alice), Creator/JamesMarsden (Rep. Phil Crane), [[Series/{{Insecure}} Jay Ellis]] (Franklin Thomas), and Creator/MelanieLynskey (Rosemary Thomson).

* GoodGirlsNeverGetAbortion: Averted, as in real life, Gloria Steinem had a safe but illegal abortion in the past and encourages women in her magazine to speak out about their experiences.

* GoodGirlsDontGetAbortion: Averted, as in real life, Gloria Steinem had a safe but illegal abortion in the past and encourages women in her magazine to speak out about their experiences.

The rest of the main cast is rounded out by Creator/RoseByrne as ERA proponent/feminist activist Gloria Steinem, Uzo Aduba as Shirley Chisolm (the first black woman ever elected to Congress), and Creator/ElizabethBanks as Republican ERA supporter Jill Ruckelshaus.

* PhraseCatcher: Everyone, even Republican Jill, calls Phyllis “that right wing nut”.

* FoxNewsLiberal: Jill Ruckelshaus is a real person and in the show, as in real life, she was the Republican face of the ERA. She worked in both the Nixon and Ford administrations as a women's rights advisor

* {{Hypocrite}}: The show portrays Phyllis as such. She's a very intelligent, educated woman who works outside the home despite the fact that she preaches that women shouldn't do such.

* PhraseCatcher: Everyone, even Republican Jill, calls Phyllis “that tight wing nut”.