Mrs. America

Oh, what a handsome devil you are.

Oh, thank you, Mrs. Thomson.

Oh, Beth would rip my tongue out of my mouth

if she heard me say this, but in 2 years, she'll be 18,

and I want a Schlafly boy to be my son‐in‐law.

Relax. I've got two more right behind him.

Tommy met a girl while he was on leave in Honolulu.

Oh?

She was vacationing with her parents.

They're from Ladue. That's lucky.

When does Tom finish his tour?

Uh, by Christmas, God willing.

All right, everyone, let's get started.

We have a lot to do.

Alice? Yes. Um...

Okay, so I have booked

the conference room at the hotel.

If you don't have a room reserved yet,

see me after.

And I'm coordinating rides to St. Louis

if anybody wants to carpool.

And we've proved we can stop the ERA right here in Illinois,

and it's because of your hard work

that over a hundred of my subscribers

wanna come to St. Louis for the weekend

and learn from our strategy

and help launch our national campaign.

Our goal is to have chapters in 25 states

by this time next year.

What are we calling ourselves?

Well, I think the Schlafly Eagles.

That makes us sound like a group

of middle‐aged German Girl Scouts.

The name should tell people who we are,

like "League of Housewives."

That's good. It's too bad it's already taken.

Eagles mate for life,

and I think that tells people who we are.

But more importantly, I have a profile in D. C.,

and, uh, if we're going to catch up with the libbers,

we're gonna need to grow fast,

and my name gives us instant political recognition.

The problem is "Schlafly"

doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.

I've known you 20 years, and I'm still not sure

where the L's go.

That's before the "A" and after the "F."

Why don't we vote on it?

Well, if we vote on every little thing,

we will never be ready.

But we are voting on state leaders

because I plan on running for head of the Illinois chapter.

Maybe I'll run, too.

Well, there's more to it

than baking bread for a few legislators.

Pamela?

Oh, no, that's my manuscript.

Oh, I ruined it. I'm so sorry.

Oh, no, it's all right. It's just the front page.

This is smart.

What is it?

What if we call ourselves "Stop ERA"?

It would be even better if we could turn it into an acronym.

Stop Telling‐‐ Stop Tormenting...

No, Stop Taking‐‐ Stop Taking Over‐‐

Stop Taking Our Providers. Protectors.

Privileges. Stop Taking Our Privileges.

That's great.

‐ Shirley Chisholm!

Right now, women, don't forget to vote for the Chisholm slate!

Shirley Chisholm gets some of her best support

from college students.

The spirit of Chisholm is what we're here for.

We are the people. This is a people's campaign.

A recent poll will put her campus popularity

at second only to George McGovern's.

We need a change. All men do is get us into trouble.

We're in more trouble now than we ever were.

As far as we know,

all the polls across the state have closed.

Eugene McCarthy and Shirley Chisholm

got 1% each.

She bristles at the suggestion she step aside,

lest she draw liberal votes away

from other Democratic presidential contenders.

Senator McGovern is likely to get a good, strong boost

for the Democratic nomination tonight. 248 delegates...

You pushed me to run as the people's president,

and even if we didn't do as well as we hoped,

we can still shake things up at the convention.

That's right. That's right.

Politicians don't give their support

for a good cause out of the goodness of their hearts.

That's right. ‐

You can go to the convention

and yell, "Black power, here I come,"

"women power," any kind of thing,

but the only thing that those hard‐nosed boys

are going to understand‐‐ how many delegates do you got?

That's right. Yes, that's right.

Oh. Senator McGovern.

Mm‐hmm. You want my delegates?

Yes, please!

Well, how about a black vice president?

Hey!

How about a woman to head Department of Health?

How about legalizing abortion?

Busing our children to better schools?

I'm glad you're staying in it.

Listen.

We got to let the establishment know

that we done just about had it.

I feel we're about to be invited

to a street protest in Miami.

Okay. ‐

Why do we have to be in the middle of the street while

they are in an air‐conditioned convention center?

I'm tired of protesting outside. I want to work inside,

where there is coffee and carpet.

Okay?

How long these pigs gon' be sticking around?

Well, George Wallace got shot,

and the president sent me Secret Service.

We are living in upside down times.

‐

To be fair, Nixon sent them to protect you.

‐ To protect...or to surveil?

Does he even know the difference?

The Man's always listening.

Where's Chizzy?

I gotta catch that last train. We need your vote

on the education amendments this week.

Patsy Mink calls me every day to remind me.

‐

You made history.

But if I could get

the endorsement of the Black Caucus,

there would be a lot of press going into Miami.

That is what I need more than anything right now.

And you know I'm with you all the way,

but I'm only one voice on the caucus.

Don't sell yourself short.

‐

Hello?

Baby. It's Bella.

You kicked down that last door.

And you know you have when the Gridiron Club

invites you to their annual dinner.

But they didn't change their male‐only membership policy,

so I replied, "Guess who's not coming to dinner."

‐

Aw, I'm proud of you. You ran a terrific campaign.

Well, I'm still running. Primaries are over.

Everyone's getting on the McGovern bandwagon.

Humphrey, Muskie, Jackson‐‐ they aren't getting on it.

You know how it goes.

Party unity. We can't look divided.

We are divided.

I admire what you're trying to do, Shirley.

I really do.

I'll see you in Miami.

She's not dropping out?

This is gonna be a problem.

First of all, we're all gonna have to check in, I believe.

Hello, Mary! So good you could come.

Why didn't anyone tell me we were meeting?

I'm staying at the Doral.

No, watch out, watch out! This place is a dump. Oh!

I'd like to give you this. Oh. Thank you.

I'm not telling you to drop out,

but the caucus has endorsed McGovern.

I would like to see a list of the specific commitments

to black needs McGovern made to them.

Walter don't want any chaos during your speech tomorrow.

Whoa. If I tell it like it is

and black delegates defect to me, that's chaos?

I call it a revolution.

Some of the brothers question whether you're really

the candidate for blacks or just for women.

I don't look black to you?

‐

Does...

this make me black?

Do they know about this? And the others.

Why are you carrying this around?

To remind myself why I'm staying in.

You go up against McGovern,

you're gonna take a beating back in Washington.

I'm not going to roll over every time

the Man presses too hard.

If I do, it's just gonna keep up the pressure,

and I'm going to keep rolling over.

Uh, we sent letters to all the legislators

asking them to let us know if they didn't get bread,

and one representative from Chicago

actually wrote me back.

"Now I'm a bachelor, so I don't care one way or the other

"about the ERA, but I want my bread,

and furthermore, I want banana bread."

Luckily, banana bread happens to be one of my specialties.