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In the early 1970s, the American government was on the brink of ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. constitution, explicitly giving men and women equal status, with wide bipartisan support across nearly all states. With her campaigning, Schlafly pretty much derailed it single-handedly. In demeanour and hairdo, she was a figure as queenly as Margaret Thatcher and just as polarizing, although in her anti- change politics not similar at all. "It felt like with every passing week [of filming], issues that even two years ago would have been seen as tangential to the concerns of women and men today were profoundly and increasingly relevant," says Blanchett says. Except, I say, it feels like the culture wars of the 1970s are back; Betty Friedan et al didn't have to reckon with a "pussy-grabber" in the White House. "I think there have always been pussy-grabbers in the White House," Blanchett says. "They perhaps weren't rewarded for that." Blanchett is drawn to elegant villainesses, literally playing the wicked stepmother in Cinderella. Yet, as Sher says, the way out of polarization is not to demonize, "and a corollary of that is it doesn't serve us to only canonize people that we agree with." Blanchett takes on this theme. "We're so used to our algorithm delivering us the news that makes us feel better or speaks to our points of view." To "unlock Phyllis and what motivated her" felt like a vital act of understanding. "It's very easy to say she was a crackpot," says Blanchett. "But look at the way people are responding differently to the virus. I'm an American citizen, but I don't live there, so I'm one step removed from it, but there is a profound thread in America of the rights of the individual, rather than who they are as a society. Phyllis was an individualist who prized hierarchy over change." Blanchett's mother was unwittingly affected by Schlafly, thousands of miles away in Australia. After the death of her husband, June Blanchett gave up her job as a teacher and became a property developer to support three children through private school. Blanchett has said she developed an "enormously empathetic" connection with the sacrifices and strength of her mother. "Yet," as Blanchett told the Sydney Morning Herald, her mother "didn't really identify as a feminist because...Phyllis Schlafly was very adept at suggesting that if you were a feminist you were anti-family." Blanchett's mother was nervous about her revisiting this on screen. "I mean," Blanchett says to me, "we're living through that backlash right now, another sort of backlash. I was very interested in my mother's response to my being part of this series, trying to look at the women's movement and the equal and opposite traditionalist movement. It was trepidation because I feel that there are battle scars." Yet, she says, "There are battle scars for men, too." The success of feminism depends almost as much on men's attitudes as women's. Those in power have to share." Interesting point, I say. Would your fathers have supported women's rights? Sher says that "there was no one who was more proud of my accomplishments" than her late father. Blanchett, after a long pause, says, "I hope so. He died when I was ten, so I can't give you an answer." What about your husbands, do they identify as feminists? "100%," Sher says. I direct the question at Blanchett. There is an even longer pause. "I think we lost her," Sher says of our crackly phone line, but then Blanchett talks. "Well, yeah, I'm just wondering what you're seeking." What will success look like for the next generation in terms of relations between the sexes? Sher says: "I have a 16-year-old daughter and I have an 18-year-old son. I guess maybe not having to answer that question anymore?" Blanchett laughs. "Yeah." Then continues. She is worried about her little girl growing up and being vulnerable in the world because she is a woman. "I've got three boys and a girl and there is something that I do worry profoundly about. When there's a growing fear about so much economic uncertainty, the people who always get to bear the brunt are women. The increasing domestic violence I find incredibly worrying. I hope my daughter does not worry about walking out at night or what she wears. You know, basic questions. I'm really saddened that I'm even thinking these thoughts in 2020. I'm sure women who were part of the women's movements in the 1970s would have thought that we would have evolved to the point where we didn't have to have that growing level of concern." Then, it's the end of our short time together and Blanchett gets demob happy, suddenly very friendly and apologetic about the quality of the line. Her last point lingers in my head. Her best roles are about armor and its weight. She is a powerful woman who so often plays powerful women, but still can never be armored enough to protect those she loves. Mrs. America is streaming on Hulu as a part of "FX on Hulu." To learn more visit, https://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/mrs-america.