Ep. 8: The Real-Life Serena Waterford: How Phyllis Schlafly Betrayed Women like Selena Maria Chandler-Scott

In this episode, we track the rise of Phyllis Schlafly-—the woman who weaponized housewife aesthetics and femininity to bulldoze the Equal Rights Amendment and hand America the long-term consequences we're still living through, and we will discuss a bit of that 2nd wave feminism.

We follow the feminist heroes of the early 1970s—Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Brenda Feigen, Shirley Chisholm, and others—as they fought tooth and nail for the ERA, only to be blindsided by Schlafly’s grift in pearls: STOP ERA. You’ll hear how Schlafly mobilized fear, fundamentalism, and good old-fashioned misogyny to convince women they didn’t need rights—just a pie in the oven and a man in charge.

We head into the chaos of the 1977 National Women’s Conference in Houston—slaps, slogans, and sabotage—before pivoting to Reagan’s rise, the GOP’s courtship of the religious right, and how Schlafly helped lay the groundwork for Trumpism.

We’ll show how Schlafly’s fingerprints are all over today’s anti-abortion fanaticism, with stories like that of Selena Maria from Tifton, GA—a terrifying reminder of what happens when women’s healthcare becomes collateral in a culture war.

But we end with resistance. You’ll hear about state-level ERAs, Senator Gillibrand’s push to make the ERA the 28th Amendment, and what you can do to help.

Because the future of bodily autonomy and equality isn’t dead—it’s just waiting for us to wake the hell up.

Show notes/sources:

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