HISTORY LESSON: It’s been 50 years since one of the most consequential debates about women’s rights was held — and it happened at Illinois State University in Normal.
In May 1973, feminist leader Betty Friedan faced off against conservative firebrand Phyllis Schlafly to debate the proposed Equal Rights Amendment.
Their confrontation got ugly when Friedan called Schlafly “a traitor to your sex, an Aunt Tom. … You are a witch. God, I’d like to burn you at the stake!” The comments didn’t help the cause of the ERA, which has yet to become a constitutional amendment. Friedan died in 2006 and Schlafly in 2016.
Made for TV drama: Their debate was one of the scenes played out in “Mrs. America” on Hulu. Since it took place in Illinois, we called Schlafly’s daughter to ask her to reflect on it 50 years later.
“My mother loved to tell that story. She used those lines to say ‘See, the proponents of the Equal Right Amendment have no arguments. All they can do is personally attack’,’’ said Anne Schlafly Cori, who described actress Cate Blanchett’s physical portrayal of her mother in the show as spot-on.
Cori, who now heads the Eagle Forum, which her mother founded, quibbled with the show’s “psychological motivations,” saying several scenes were “flat wrong,” including the ending “which tried to portray her as defeated.”
“There is no Eagle who turned against Phyllis Schlafly,” her daughter said. “The show had an agenda, which was against my mother’s position.”
The 1973 debate went virtually unnoticed at the time, Cori said. “There is so much news media attention today on social issues. But in the early 1970s, there was no media attention to social issues. A debate between two women at Illinois State University would have been a non-starter. It’s the way it was,” she said, echoing what ERA supporters might say, too.
“The ERA didn’t lead the news back then,” Cori added. “What was important then were gas lines, the war in Vietnam and Watergate.