History Series / MrsAmerica

** In "Phyllis & Fred & Brenda & Marc", before their debate, it turns out that Fred went to college with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_A._Freund Paul Freund]], who Marc and Brenda had as a professor. All Phyllis (who is educated with a Master's degree) can do is smile and offer a few comments as she is out of her depth. Later because of this and that Brenda pointed out that Phyllis fabricated a court case on live TV is what spurs Phyllis to decide on attending law school at Georgetown University.

** In "Phyllis & Fred & Brenda & Marc", before their debate, it turns out that Fred had [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_A._Freund Paul Freund]] as a professor, along with Marc and Brenda. All Phyllis (who is educated with a Master's degree) can do is smile and offer a few comments as she is out of her depth. Later because of this and that Brenda pointed out that Phyllis fabricated a court case on live TV is what spurs Phyllis to decide on attending law school at Georgetown University.

* FlyoverCountry: STOP ERA is based in Illinois at first and most of the ERA feminists were from the Midwest themselves (Gloria from Ohio, Jill from Indiana, Betty from Illinois). Phyllis and Betty meet for a debate in Bloomington, Indiana.

* {{Irony}}: In a talk with Jill about the sexual harassment facing the women on the Hill, Phyllis asserted that "virtuous women are seldom accosted" and they were asking for it. Later when Phyllis is meeting with Ronald Reagan's campaign team she forces smiles through dirty jokes and gets a man's hand on her knee.

** Phyllis's strenuous efforts to destroy the chances of the ERA getting passed end up serving to strangle any hopes she might have had of future career advancement in the administration of Ronald Reagan. Which works on several levels; she views getting the ERA binned as a stepping stone to future political power, but her efforts complete alienates the women the Republican Party depends on for electoral success, meaning the party has to cut her loose; her determination to smother an amendment to ensure equal working rights legitimises the sexism which enables the men she's competing with to ignore and dismiss her; the increasingly liberal, moderate and open Republican Party she initially rails against and works to undermine would have allowed her greater opportunity for the career advancement she craves; and her own actions mean she's completely loathed by the feminist movement which she could have turned to as an ally against such arguably unjust treatment.

* {{Irony}}: As noted by Bella Abzug, the "proud homemakers" of the STOP ERA movement who urge for the nations to StayInTheKitchen and ask politicians to keep women there, end up becoming "working girls". In RealLife, Arlene Crane becomes a Private Investigator and Rosemary Thomson works in several Republican administrations especially in the War Against Drugs with William Bennett while the fictional Alice ends up taking a job as a 411 operator.

--->'''Alice:''' I came here to defend myself, but I have to ask: who is attacking us?

--->'''Phyllis:''' You used to feel empowered by me.
--->'''Alice:''' I used to feel scared.

--->'''Jill:''' Who are these chocolates for?
--->'''Bella:''' One of my secretaries.
--->'''Jill:''' Oh, it's her birthday?
--->'''Bella:''' I threw an ashtray at her.

--->'''Betty:''' Bloomington is a shithole, I can say that coming from [[HatedHometown Peoria]].

---> I'm not interested in another run that's viewed as symbolic. [=McGovern=] will choose Thomas Eagleton, as he always wanted to do all along and he won't mention abortion on the campaign trail, or gay rights, or the Equal Rights Amendment, or anything that matters to us. You put on a good show, but don't mistake that for real political power. Power concedes nothing. If we don't demand true equality, we are always going to be begging men for a few crumbs from the pie, trading women for an empty promise.

--->'''Gloria:''' These housewives are the last gasp of the patriarchy, brainwhashed to believe that if they don't play the game, they will lose the love and protection of men...How long are we supposed to wait? How many more women are going to die from botched abortions while we wait for men to feel comfortable with us having control over our own bodies? How many women are gonna be forced to give birth to babies they can't afford to feed while we wait for housewives, who have no idea what it's like to have to work to survive, to feel comfortable with women having power? How long do we give people to adapt to change? Am I the only one who's so fucking tired of waiting?

--->'''Jill:''' Billy likes to say that we educate men and women through college to be precisely equal, but then the men go off to do interesting things.

--->'''Alice:''' When did you get so mean?
--->'''Phyllis:''' Well now I thought you of all people would be enjoying tonight, after all our hard work, I did this for you.
--->'''Alice:''' No, don't! This is what you do ''(Phyllis tries to interrupt)'' You change the subject and you twist things up! Do you even care about me at all?
--->'''Phyllis:''' Now I did all of this for you.
--->'''Alice:''' You did all of this for me?!?
--->'''Phyllis:''' So you would not feel invisible.
--->'''Alice:''' I've never felt more invisible than when I'm around you!

--->'''Jill:''' Like I haven't [[https://www.nytimes.com/1974/03/19/archives/jill-ruckelshaus-quits-as-white-house-aide.html quit the White House]] before.

--->'''Alice:''' There's our Joan of Arc, doesn't she work miracles? Unless your husband's a jerk and then you're on your own.

* SnarkToSnarkCombat: Phyllis and Betty have this in the restroom while preparing for their debate in "Betty".
--->'''Betty:''' How do the Birches feel about you powdering your nose in an [[UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement integrated bathroom]]?
--->'''Phyllis:''' I imagine the same way that the [[ButchLesbian militant lesbians]] feel about you even powdering yours.
--->'''Betty:''' Just think - [[SarcasmMode if we had the ERA, all the pedophiles and perverts lurking in those stalls]] would get to witness this special moment.
*** Betty also has this with Bella, albeit friendlier.
--->'''Bella:''' You don't get the credit you deserve because you're difficult.
--->'''Betty:''' And you're ruthless and you don't listen.
--->'''Bella:''' To you. I don't like a know it all.

** The most prominent being Gloria who is very intelligent but because the media likes to cover her for her beauty she mostly get's reduced to her being a pretty face with great legs, deals with the resentment of more average looking and older women like Betty who were in representing the movement in the media for longer and often deals with harassment from her account man and Al Goldstein from ''Screw'' magazine.

* SouthernBelle: The Southern members of the STOP ERA chapters appear with big, elaborate bouffants, a lot of makeup, and rather bigoted language against lesbians and people of color. They are also as hard on integration as they are on communism and socialism.

* OpenMarriage: Shockingly with the "family values" politician Phil Crane and his wife Arlene. He has always flirted with Phyllis, even asking her to wear her two piece swimsuit to a TV interview with him in front of her, but "Reagan" implies that Arlene is not only aware of his dalliances but she also takes an active role in vetting out his conquests before they can enter their house.

* OutnumberedSibling: Two in the Schlafly family as there are four sons and two daughters.

* InVinoVeritas: Alice gets this in "Reagan" after sullenly sipping a few drinks during the gala and before she launches into giving Phyllis a public TheReasonYouSuckSpeech after Phyllis organized a song and dance where Rosemary and another peer make fun of Gloria Steinem and Bella Abzug and after Phyllis advised Pamela to obey her husband and make him feel like the king of his castle, which led to her not being able to attend.

* AbsurdlyYouthfulMother: The young looking Alice, who has a daughter in grade school in the early 70s, then into the mid 70s she sees her older son (young adult) get married, and by 1977 she is a grandmother of an infant.

* MyBelovedSmother: Alice's mother Marion in "Houston" who is nice and loving, but she tends to remind Alice what to pack and reminds her like she's still a young woman despite Alice being a mother of a young adult man and at least one teenager.