The Woman Who Stopped Equal Rights in America
Witness History
BBC
4.4 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 14 June 2017
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In June 1982 an attempt to amend the US constitution to guarantee equal rights for men and women was defeated. Despite two decades of women's liberation activism and a huge groundswell of political support, the amendment was prevented from going through. The defeat was in large part down to one woman, staunch Republican and leading conservative, Phyllis Schlafly. Claire Bowes has been listening to archive recordings of Mrs Schlafly, held by the Abraham Lincoln Presidential library.
PHOTO: American political activist Phyllis Schlafly smiles from behind a pair of podium mounted microphones, 1982. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:35.4 | Sounds. |
| 0:36.4 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:40.9 | My name's Linda Davies and I commissioned |
| 0:43.0 | podcast for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:45.0 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality, |
| 0:49.0 | featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:54.4 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 1:00.9 | poltergeist, cricket and conspiracy theories, and that's just a few examples. |
| 1:06.4 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over |
| 1:11.1 | at BBC Sounds. |
| 1:12.3 | Hello and thank you for downloading Witness on the BBC World Service. |
| 1:16.0 | In June 1982, a 10-year battle between feminists and the pro-family movement in America came to an end when the Equal Rights Amendment |
| 1:26.4 | was defeated. The ERA would have changed the US Constitution to guarantee equal rights for men and women. |
| 1:34.8 | The opposition was led by one woman, her name was Phyllis Schlafly. |
| 1:39.8 | I've been listening to archive recordings of her, held by the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. |
| 1:45.1 | What do women want? Equal rights now. During the 1960s and 70s women in America had started to ask fundamental questions about their lives, |
... |
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