The Equal Rights Amendment wasfirst introduced to Congress in the '20s, and first approved by the House of Representatives and the Senate in 1971 and 1972, respectively.
That doesn't mean it was automatically ratified, though. Each state had to choose whether to ratify the amendment, and it would only be added to the Constitution if three-fourths of the states ratified it.
That's when Mrs. America picks up, and it takes place during that fight for the ERA between 1972 and 1979. The amendment seemed likely to hit that three-fouths mark until, all of a sudden, conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly (played by Cate Blanchett in Mrs.
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