The 1977 Women's Conference That Changed America | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. welcome to stuff you should know a. production of iHeart. [Music]. Radio hey and welcome to the podcast I'm. Josh there's Chuck and Jerry's here too. and this is stuff you should know the. watershed moment in American history. Edition that's right in which we tackle. not. literally take on no.

cover yeah cover uh neutral the uh. Houston Texas conference the National. Women's Conference in Houston that was. uh from November 18th to 21st. 1977 which was the only time that the US. government got together and said here's. some money go out and put together a. conference and a group of delegates that. represent the women in this country and. come back back to us with ideas on.

action we can take but mostly won't well. they left off the mostly won't part they. didn't find that out until afterward. yeah um Gloria steum who is one of the. co-founders of now and like um a. quintessential second W feminist she. called this the most important event. nobody knows about and it really was. this this was a a very specific moment. in time um where Olivia helped us with. this where she pointed out that um this.

is probably the last moment where the. federal government would be like sure. we're going to fund a conference to to. find out um how to better wom kind. womankind um and then this at the same. time the last moment where those women. could go into that conference assuming. that the stuff they came up with was. going to actually have legs and move. forward in Congress yeah did you see the. FX miniseries Mrs America I did not.

which is surprising because I've been. chewing around the edges of it in other. research and I've still not seen it it. was really good oh I'm sure it looked. like it's just a murderous row of great. actors great actors and it's uh I'm sure. you can still watch it but um a lot of. the people in this story figure in that. miniseries well that's the thing this is. a it was a huge huge deal the an. historian named marjerie j j spru wrote.

a book on this and she called it the. crest of the second wave of us feminism. it is. also conceivably the the time the moment. where the Christian right uh became a. thing MH where the religious right I. should say more specifically and that. the religious right became came to hold. tremendous sway over the Republican. Party a lot of people point to the. election of Ronald Reagan uh some people. take it a little further back back and.

and point to Jerry falwell's. organization of the Moral Majority. political action committee nope. apparently it happened two years before. fwell in Houston Texas and it was an. rally that was designed to oppose this. Women's Conference by women who were. threatened by the idea of women being. stripped of their their traditional. roles of Homemaker there was a huge. opposition of of women who um believed. that the family was the was the basic.

unit of society and that that family was. meant to have the mom stay home with the. kids and the dad go off and be the wage. earner and that worked fine and dandy uh. after the post-war um World War II era. but that became increasingly difficult. as this time wore on wages real wages. failed to keep up with inflation and all. of a sudden you're actually kind of. needed the mom to go out and work and so. to these women this is like a literal. breakdown in the fabric of society and.

they were very upset about this and they. very much blamed feminists who seemed to. want to push things in that direction. not only weren't opposed to it they. wanted to push things in that direction. and so this huge opposition came up. that's right and it was also a time uh. specifically uh you know you're were. talking about the opposition movement. just in general but uh specifically to. oppose the Equal Rights Amendment uh. which was proposed first in. 1923 um technically pass the house. Senate in.

1972 still not written into the US. Constitution uh we can't get into it now. because it is a very long and convoluted. story well we did an episode on it did. we on the whole thing. mhm how when was. that I know man I know um I would say in. the last three years interesting because. there's new stuff that's happened in the. last few years so I wonder if it was. before that dish well I mean just like.

uh lawsuits like uh Virginia coming on. board which me which mean uh which means. we had three quarters of the state. approval basically everything in place. that is required to make a. constitutional amendment but then people. are like well wait a minute other people. rended theirs and Virginia came on late. and theirs had previously been rescinded. so then there were lawsuits and uh here. I said we weren't getting into it and. I'm kind of getting into it but I I. think the the last lawsuit said.

uh it's still not happening man and that. was in the last couple of years that's. still just crazy to me yeah it is but. anyway yeah we did do an episode on that. that's why it seems so familiar but we. did and be the reason why um why it. seems familiar is because philis shafley. figured big into that and she figures. big into this too yeah so phy shafley. was an attorney uh a very much. conservative right-wing uh activist and. who was played by Kate Blanchett. wonderfully.

in Mrs America oh I bet uh yeah she did. a great job um she uh founded the stop. er uh I was about to call it a club or. organization and uh I just have to shout. out the fact that uh stop is what's. called a backronym uh that's when you. have an acronym that's already a word MH. so all you really needed was an. organization called stop ER it actually. stands for stop taking our privilege.

Privileges and you can't use a word from. the acronym or backronym in your acronym. or backronym it's no or else you're just. saying it twice right yeah it's just so. clumsy and we like to critique acronyms. as good or bad uh I give stop ER just an. unnecessary okay yeah we need a rubber. stamp for that or no a metal clanging. sound like you've embossed it at any. rate pH def founded that I want to work.

this. out all right what are we doing the the. so you remember like the old um. production company that that created. Dragnet it was like Mark 7 or something. like that don't remember that but sure. well we'll go off and watch an episode. of Dragnet and then at the end I'll. point it out to you okay and it was like. a sit ubu sit good dog thing kind of but. yes exactly it was the same premise um. but it was a it was somebody like. putting like a a metal stamp and they. hit it with like a.

or like a hammer and it made that that. metal emboss engraving sound okay that I. want to rip off is what I'm saying all. right so we give stop er a uh an. unnecessary oh that sounds good that was. really good Jerry Jerry's able to find. that um the the we should talk about the. beginnings the seed of this conference. uh it happened um on the heels of the UN. saying 1975 is the international. woman's year M and they had a uh.

International Conference in Mexico City. that year and that's when Gerald Ford uh. stood up and said all right here's an. executive order number 11832 we'll give. you 5 million bucks it's about $29. million today uh to create the national. Commission on the observance of in. international women's year and like go. have your big conference work out what. you want to bring back to us which is. what we refer to earlier yeah and that 5.

million sounds like a lot to fund some. conferences and it is but I read from. somebody who was kind of sour on the. whole thing poting out that that's less. than a nickel of woman for every woman. that was in America at the. time yeah but 29 million comparatively. you can't pull the conference off for. that I'm with you but I'll do for a. million a very very important point was. it was also a series of conferences. first they had State conferences first. to figure out what they were going to to. bring to the National Conference so it.

was like this yearlong of conference and. like looking back now you're like wow. people were talking about women and. women's rights a lot at the time and it. was a huge like there was it was just in. the Zeitgeist like women's rights was. moving forward at this incredible clip. just of two things time declared um The. 1975 man of the year to be the American. woman yeah and I read that the 1971 72. Congress I think that was the 92nd.

Congress they passed more women's rights. legislation than all previous. legislative sessions combined so it was. it was a huge it seemed like a. juggernaut and of course women were. going to have all the rights that men. have the Equal Rights Amendment was. going to be become a part of the. Constitution it was just in the air so. this conference just made sense yeah can. I read that Time Magazine quote because. it's pretty great yeah this was in the. the uh quote unquote Man of the Year. article uh it said enough us women have.

so deliberately taken possession of. their lives that the event is. spiritually equivalent to the discovery. of a new continent that's so awesome man. whoever wrote that nice work James. time oh Jimmy time so uh there's a. congress uh person named Bella abzug. battling Bella abzug from New York who. is a a real fire brand and was one of. the biggest advocates for this Congress. um I'm sorry for this conference in.

Congress and she got together with some. other organizers like you mentioned. there were state and Regional. conferences uh they were going to choose. about 2,000 delegates and they were. really really smart because um and you. know maybe if we I told Josh I was. putting together sort of a easily. two-parter on just the history of. feminism Josh. who oh you weren't talking to me just. now I see no I was talking to Let's. talking to the listener you know I got.

people out there in podcast land I'm. psyched about that one I've been wanting. to do that forever and we need to we. need to do that sooner than later for. sure because I've been wanting to do. that one for years yeah for sure um but. I think where I was going was that um. they were really smart and that uh oh I. know where I was headed is that in in in. certain ways of feminism there was um. not the most representation and as. feminism grew uh through the different. movements that expanded and this was one. of those moments where they got really.

smart and they were like you know we. can't just make this about um white. Suburban women or white you know I guess. urban women either we need to expand our. our pool and talk to women who are. farmers and women who are uh basically. women who haven't been you know minority. women who haven't been included as much. in this conversation uh will provide uh. provide child care uh if you can't. afford to come we'll pay your entrance. Fe so like it was just a really smart.

way to go about it which is like let's. bring everybody together finally here in. the. 1970s yeah and it was the conference. encouraged that they were trying to get. the best representation of women in. America that they possibly could and so. that conference kind of um inadvertently. encouraged all these different types of. feminists to come together like they. never had before that was a huge um. lasting impact of it yeah a lot of there. was a lot of um infighting in feminism.

at the time there was the Old Guard kind. of personified by Betty fan who wrote. the Feminine Mystique um who was kind of. opposed um to the say the gay contingent. which she called the lavender Menace. which she believed prevented mainstream. Society from accepting feminism and. seeing it as credible um the like you. said feminism was largely viewed uh. through the lens of white middle class. women um it it was this was an expanding.

scope and it was it made some people. nervous they were like well how are we. going to get anything done with all. these opposing views and it it it was. very fortunate that there was that small. contingent of conservatives who were. super mad about this that still attended. this conference that allowed all the. other groups to come together to oppose. them and get these planks pushed forward. rather than fighting amongst to one. another and it actually brought together. different branches of feminism that are. still just part of this coalition today.

yeah there was a lot of coalescing on. both sides because of this event it's. pretty incredible yeah uh because Phil. shafley uh early on um championed to try. and stop this from even happening like. hey Congress don't fund this thing uh. that didn't work and so a woman named. lah Beth Hobbs of Texas who features. pretty prominently here had the idea to. like to show up and rabble rals and make. their voices heard on the other side mhm. um she initially proposed it and.

interestingly shafley I think you found. this wasn't um immediately on board. because she was very um you know she she. liked to play chess and not Checkers and. she was like Hey if we show and there's. a low opposition turnout we're going to. look like fools uh but um L Beth Hobbs. said no we're going and you should get. on board and she did yeah that was um. Marjorie J spru the historian turned. that up which is fascinating as we'll.

see how that played out and uh the. committee that was actually formed um by. the anti- activist was the IW citizens. Review Committee uh then again a. coalescing they were like are you. anti-gay come and join us are you. anti-abortion get over here do you not. want the the erra uh bill passed come. along Catholics Mormons evangelicals and. this is what you were talking about. earlier that really sort of galvanized. the beginnings of the religious right.

yeah so the more inclusive the feminists. were in the conference the more targets. it presented to people opposed to it the. more likely it made for those opponents. to come together in opposition and form. like a a actual movement with real. political clout and that became the. relig religious right and apparently it. was the inclusion of a woman's right to. abortion uh included as part of the like. the goals of this conference um that.

really kind of created that what had not. been a coalition before where it was. basically the Catholics who were. anti-abortion up to that point and the. evangelicals were say like anti-gay well. now they had something in common. feminism feminism is going to ruin. everything there are other people who. are anti- ER and it just brought all of. them together like you were saying it's. just nuts how the fabric of our society. today formed over this weekend. essentially November yeah uh it's insane.

to me it like history is so rarely. tucked into one little tiny corner like. three days yeah and and this is a really. good example of that rare rare um. instance yeah because you know you. mentioned uh the anti-abortion like roie. Wade went through in 73 but it didn't. even become officially part of the. Republican platform uh anti- roie Wade. until 1976 mhm and like you said it was. it was something something to to coales.

and and bring people together so like. both sides it's almost like they're. going to war you know both sides are are. bringing in backup and they're uh. mounting the troops to sort of dig in on. both sides at this one weekend in. Houston um there were conservative. delegates uh that did get elected uh. Utah and Mississippi had delegates there. uh that got elected because they had. more you know conservative voters in. those States yeah those State. conferences that were held before for. the um National Conference yeah that's.

where they elected delegates and if. you're in a conservative State you were. sending conservative delegates so much. so Mississippi sent six men to the. Women's Conference as I guess a symbol. as well of like these are the men these. are this is who in Char is in charge. they should be the ones who are the. delegates there was actually seven men. South Carolina uh sent a male delegate. too but he apparently didn't show up so. you'll very frequently see that out of. the 2,000 Del it's only only six were.

men yeah and Mississippi also sent uh. Dallas Higgins who was married to George. Higgins who is the leader of the cucuk. clan in Mississippi uh so do with that. what you will got a lot of ground to. cover. Mississippi so um as far as the other. delegates uh the you know the. non-conservative delegates they were. obviously feminists there with with. their agenda uh a lot of them were. political insiders who had been around.

for a long time uh they they brought out. all the stars though they're like Gloria. steum you get in here uh Coretta Scott. King come on down uh Shirley Chisum who. uh Ruby just did a uh a project on. Charley Chism for black history month so. I learned all about her which is amazing. she was the first black woman elected to. congress right uh first black woman. elected to congress and first black. woman to run for president of the United. States oh I didn't know that Nate which. is incredible uh Barbara Jordan of. course was there and if you want a real.

showstopper you got to get my Angelou to. write a a custom poem for the event yeah. what was it called like toward a more. perfect union uh to form a more perfect. union that was written for this. conference yeah pretty cool um. so we keep talking about Houston and. Texas and if you're like well why would. they hold a women's rights conference in. Houston or in Texas there are a couple. of reasons why Texas was actually one of. the states that had already ratified the.

erra and Houston was a well also Barbara. Jordan was a congress person from Texas. from Houston so they had even more. feminist cred and then Houston actually. had a um a an agency um of basically a. woman's advocate agency in the the um. city office and so like all of these. things put together me Houston seemed. like hey this is a city on the rise as. far as feminism goes in in reaction and. resp response to finding out that. Houston was where the National.

Conference was going to be the governor. of Texas declared that week National. family week very clearly through his lot. or Texas's lot in with the anti- people. um the uh the Houston city council had. diminished the funding for that woman's. advocate office to $1 a year um and. essentially just eliminated it um they. they took a lot of steps to kind of go. backwards when they found out this is. this is going to be in Houston like most. of Houston's establishment was not happy.

that this was going to happen here I. thought you were going to say it. happened in Houston because that meant. that I'm one day closer to. you no. no you ever heard that song no is that a. Trant song no it's uh think it's a. Gatlin Brothers or Larry Gatlin maybe. what's the song Houston parenthesis. means I'm one day closer to you huh it's. a good song okay I've not heard of that.

means that I'm one day closer to you. nope still have not heard that yeah I. guess uh maybe she lived in Dallas or. something uh anyway that joke didn't. work so let's take a break is this our. first break it's got to be yza all right. we'll be right. [Music]. back.

[Music]. all right so this conference began with. a very symbolic uh event or gesture I. guess or series of gestures uh they. modeled it on the senica Falls. Convention of 1848 which was the big. sort of uh Bedrock event of the. beginnings of the woman's suffrage.

movement and so they got a torch Olympic. Styles awesome got all these athletes. all these women to go uh I mean all. across the board like high school girls. all the way to like olymp uh Olympians. themselves and they pass that torch uh. quite symbolically from cica Falls all. the way to Houston my Angelo comes in. with that poem brings the house down all. the Heavy Hitters are there the national. news coverage is just Going Bonkers uh.

there were morning TV shows that. literally set up camp there was in all. the magazines the the first ladies got. together I think Roslin Carter was the. active uh first lady at the time but. lady bir Johnson Betty Ford they all. came and got on stage together and in. the end uh including the delegates uh. anywhere between you know 17 and mid. 30,000 people uh depends on who's. counting yeah that's a sign ific number. of people who came to show up um and so.

they were talking about a ton of. different stuff remember all each state. sent delegates and each delegate or. group of delegates had their own pet. project that they want to pass their own. the the point was to put together a. bunch of planks to form a platform to. send to Congress and the president and. say this is what you start passing this. and women will be much more equal in the. United States right so um Olia um. pointed out some of the the planks or. all of the planks in the final plan.

covered Arts and Humanities oh may I do. this one sure battered women business. child abuse Child Care Credit disabled. women education elective and appointed. office employment Equal Rights Amendment. Health Homemakers Insurance. International Affairs media minority. women offenders older women rape. reproductive Freedom rural women sexual. preference statistics and women welfare. and poverty those were the planks that. ended up in in this final platform it.

covered everything and that was a direct. result of bringing so many different. women from so many different walks of. life together and say like what do you. need to be to thrive in the United. States yeah they've tried foot rubs they. were like can we just get like one a. week from our partner is that too much. to ask without some without grousing. that okay can you imagine if the federal. government mandated that you have to do. that it'd be hilarious well at the time. they probably said all right you get. your foot rub but we get two in return.

oh yeah so uh There Was You know I. mentioned that the news was covering it. big time um and I I don't think this is. any accident that it was a woman's. conference there was a lot of talk of. like of in fighting and even fighting uh. or not even fighting but obviously. fighting between the two sides and they. may even physically confront one another. and get in fist fights and it's just. that sort of old you know cat fight. Trope that's so worn out and it was I'm.

sure worn out in the mid-70s as well uh. of course that did not happen um one of. the reasons is because there were only. about 300 conservatives there and they. were just far outnumbered um they did. have ribbons they had uh lapel ribbons. that said majority which is kind of. where this whole idea of hey with a. Moral Majority like uh we are the. majority like most American women don't.

want what you're suggesting so here's. our little pin to suggest that right um. and so that was kind of how the media. portrayed the people who were what the. feminists um the other delegates called. antes the conservative delegates were. were called anties by everybody else. because they were anti everything when. they pass passed the the uh platform you. could vote on individual planks they. just voted against the whole thing so it. it's viewed as this kind of single. Coalition in step with Phil shafley and.

um it turns out that there was a. reporter for the nation named Lucy. commissar who did more digging than the. rest of the media and found that um. actually no like a lot of the women. walking around with majority pins on are. like yes they're anti-federal government. but they're pro- Federal federally. funded health care or Child Care um they. oppose rape like they weren it wasn't. just like complete lock step she showed. but that wasn't the story that got told.

about the opposition at the conference. by the rest of the. media I'm loathed to make another music. joke now let's hear it I just wonder if. every time she walked into the room they. said hey don't turn. around is that a ace of Bas joke you get. this one ace of Bas no. Falco don't turn around they're. commissars in town oh yeah. okay that's good is that better or worse.

than the other one uh much better. because I've heard that song yeah. different spelling plus it's a good song. I'm not convinced that the Houston one. day close to De Song is good oh you. probably like it Larry Gatlin sure you. remember the Gatlin Brothers what was. their big hit Houston was it really. because I've heard them before but I've. never heard was a big hit of that song. they were big that was that whole 70s. thing when when country right just had a. big sort of movement country music with. the Mandrell Sisters and all that but.

there was another song of theirs that I. would have heard of well how about this. you look that. up and I'll I'll bring us forward. instead of back like I keep doing so the. platform itself um passed you know and. with flying colors like most people. expected it would with all the. progressive delegates air uh one of the. biggest exceptions of that though was um. how they were dealing with racial. inequality because they had put together.

a brief um addressing this that. basically just said hey um no no double. discrimination here like it's already. bad enough that uh women of color are. being discriminated against because of. their skin tone but you can't double up. because they're women as well and maybe. let's get some bilingual programs going. so they Trot this out to their. delegation and a lot of women of color. stood up and was like this isn't enough. this is very vague um so we actually.

have a plan that we put together uh. beforehand it's called the black women's. plan of action the. bwpa and we would like to swap that in. for this uh minority resolution that. you've. crafted right um and that was a that was. a big deal that it actually got that far. and even better than that it actually. was voted on. enthusiastically it was like a six-page. plank that really covered everything um. that the that women of color generally.

were interested in in seeing resolved um. and it got added to this to this. platform Keta Scott King presented it on. the last night to the delegation and it. received um it passed by an overwhelming. majority and the this is really kind of. um part of the the the spirit of this. conference um the the women broke into. singing uh we shall overcome together. after they they voted in favor of adding.

that plank rather than just the hey. let's all be you know let's be considera. of women of color like that was the. original plank yeah and uh it's also. notable because once uh the black. women's plan of action was presented and. they came forward then Asian women and. Puerto Rican women and uh CH Native. American women they were delegates uh. there were delegates there as well. representing them and they were like. well hey like we should we should all. have our voice and I think it was just.

one of those big moments like we've been. talking about of coalescing where a lot. of these white uh feminists were like. hey you know I don't know if we've done. right by our sisters of color so like we. we're we're all about inclusion yet. we're not being as inclusive as as we. should be right and this was that moment. when it happened yeah a very similar. thing happened with the gay contingent. of the feminist second wave which again.

Betty fedan called the lavender Menace. not because she necessarily had a. personal problem with um lesbians but. because she saw that as a huge obstacle. to mainstream America taking um feminism. seriously and one of the reasons why is. because feem this at the time you've. heard of manh haters right it was just. kind of like a Trope that was funny and. it was usually assigned to all feminists. that was what they used to to described. lesbians before that's what they were.

characterized as in the media and in the. popular culture manh haters that's the. only reason anybody could ever be a. lesbian you'd have to hate men and um. that also kind of dovetailed with an. actual thread of like real um disdain. for the patriarchy and male dominance. that was alive and well in some sections. of second W wave feminism at the time. and although they represented a a. minority of feminists in general and. including the feminists at this. convention those are the ones who got.

the microphone stuck in their face. because they made the great the best. press so they they had a. disproportionately large voice and they. seemed like they were hobbling feminism. as a result because who wants to who. wants to get in League with manh haters. you know yeah for sure and I think there. was a real it seems like at least there. was a realization within this conference. and within the delegation that they were. like this is really Our Moment to bring. everybody together because there's. obviously going to be you know it's.

going to be a stronger movement if we're. representing everyone and everyone's on. board so uh Betty ferdan uh during the. debate very publicly endorsed the. resolution uh completely reversed her. previous position and that was you know. people within the movement Betty fan was. you know a very um sort of a founding. member and a voice that was important so. it was a big deal yeah and so when they. voted overwhelmingly again in favor of. um including the gay and lesbian.

contingent as part of that I don't. remember exactly what the plank was but. it was essentially saying like yes we're. you're you're legit um human beings and. we recognize that and everybody should. um they broke out into song again and. they sang Houston I'm one day closer. than to. you I thought you were going to say like. an indigo girl song No but I did look up. Larry Gatlin still no clue have no idea. how I've ever heard of him because I've. not heard of any of his songs. The Gatlin Brothers nothing nope all.

right there's a song called broken lady. which sounds awful but that's their like. biggest hit and I don't think I've heard. that one H was it broken lady. parentheses get me some. glue what is going on with you today I. don't know I'm I'm a big lover of the. parenthetical song title you don't see. those anymore it's true it's true you. really don't I was who what was it oh. that Cutting Crew song song I Just Died. In Your Arms Tonight great song great.

song is that a parenthetical yes I just. is in parenthesis as if that's needed. yes the the title of the song is in. parenthesis I just in parenthesis died. in your arms tonight like it couldn't. just be died in your arms tonight wow a. front loaded parenthetical That's Unique. but also I say we brand this one. unnecessary too shall we. okay very nice I did not see that coming. up again. frankly. uh so they did not sing that song but.

after that vote there was also obviously. a uh reproductive Freedom resolution um. this supported Government funding for. abortion in sex head uh that passed very. easily as well like everything else but. uh the conservatives were really upset. about this one obviously and say they. got up on stage uh with a huge blown up. picture of an aborted fetus and they. sang everyone's getting up and singing. MH uh I imagine much to JN and yoko's. dismay uh they saying all we were saying.

is give life a chance mhm and in the. mean time uh the other side is out there. chanting uh choice choice choice and. it's just. a you know it it's quite a scene. happening there like the energy in that. conference center must have been. incredible for sure uh and then. everybody got brought down when the. plank uh the proposal to create a. cabinet level department of women's. Affairs was voted down and they had good.

reason too actually that there were a. lot of women who are like sure that. sounds good there were a lot of other. women at the conference are like no we. do not want to pigeon hole all of. women's problems into one agency like. our problems and the thing and our goals. and our hopes they spread over. everything else like we're we're humans. like we should we have all the same. interests that men do why should we just. have one cabinet position that all of. our stuff is shoveled into it doesn't. make any sense so they actually combined. their votes with the anties who again.

were voting against literally everything. that uh everybody else was was Voting. yes on uh and they actually managed to. Scuttle that one I think that was a good. move I think so too because I wonder if. all the eggs had been in that one basket. if you know four years later they're. like you know what we're going to we're. going to axe that position and all. together yeah or or that cabinet yeah. like they did with the woman's advocate. agency in Houston yeah and then all of a. sudden you're nowhere. again.

right all we are saying is give life a. chance uh you want to take our second. break and then come back and talk a. little bit more about the counter. mobilization and what came of that let's. do. [Music]. [Music]. it.

all right so we mentioned uh at the. beginning and sort of pepper throughout. uh some of these. counter-protests um these aren't the. actual conservative uh conservative. delegates that are there at the. conference this is the group headed by. uh Texan lah Beth Hobbs who uh was the. president of an anti- group called uh.

women who want to be women the. wwww this was happening across town uh. there was also a woman named Nelly gray. she was the president of March for Life. they had their own big rally and this is. where they really brought together like. we mentioned earlier like hey if you're. if you lead a group uh a Catholic group. or a conservative group or any sort of. um this is where. um they started sort of dubbing. themselves uh the I don't know about.

traditional family but just the the. family movement the pro- family movement. right um which is you know a a bit of a. thumb in the eye to the other side. saying like you don't care about. families exactly you must be anti-. family it's standard grade school. tactics and you still see it today oh. you absolutely do but this was the. moment where they got together uh on the. other side of town and said everyone uh. who who is against the stuff come. together and will um will at least try.

to put our differences aside in Coals as. well yes they also got huge support from. no ma'am the National Organization for. men against Amazonian. masterhood um and I think something like. 15,000 people came out for this anti. anti-feminist rally that they held in. opposition to the Women's Conference. remember the high end of the Women's.

Conference was. 32,000 the lower end that the number I. see bandied about most often is around. 20,000 so this is a significant number. of people in opposition coming to. Houston for this and remember Phil. shafley was like I don't think we should. do this and had lah Beth Hobbs not been. like we're doing it anyway um this. probably never would have happened and. Phil shafley gets all like across the. board the credit for for founding this. rally it was almost all L Beth hob but.

once lah Beth hob was like we're doing. it anyway Phil shafley was like okay. can't beat him join them and so she came. and spoke and um in establishing a lot. of like that um like you said Thumb in. the eye kind of tactics um that we still. see today the first thing she said when. um when phy shafley um gave her remarks. on stage she thanked her husband for. allowing her to be there and apparently. the crowd just went wild for that one. and um one of the other things that I. saw is that a lot of the the people.

there had signs or boasted to the Press. about how they had paid their own way to. make it there which was a shot at the. women who needed um help or government. funding to attend the Houston conference. just not very nice stuff so it was a. really um very targeted very specific. very effective um anti anti- Women's. Conference rally the pro- family rally. and it got a lot of press attention as. well like people would report from the.

Women's Conference then they go over to. the pro pro- family rally and it was. just crazy amazing press yeah totally. and it was the moment where they were. like uh not only did the Press notice. but and this was one of the bigger. reasons why they did this is they wanted. and got the attention of the Republican. Party um so it's like all of the stuff. wasn't officially platformed yet and or. some of some of it wasn't and so this. was when the Republican party was like. all right listen we need to platform all. this stuff officially and it was just uh.

again just this this 3 days it's really. incredible how much it shaped things I. know you found a. um an interview where LTI Beth Hobs you. know because she was from Houston and a. Texan like had this big rally and like. what would have happened had this not. even been in Texas right and and who. knows you can only speculate of what. would have happened I imagine you know. Jerry fwell came around not too long. afterward anyway so I'm sure this. movement would have taken hold but maybe.

not as soon here's the thing maybe not. as soon maybe not as tenaciously because. that rally the pro- family rally that. was in opposition of the Women's. Conference it attracted 15,000 attendees. that got the attention of a lot of. different people including the. Republican party but also it showed. those people the attendees like hey. you're an orthodox Jew hey you're. Catholic hey you're an Evangelical. Christian hey you just hate the idea of.

the federal government overstepping its. bounds all of us we have all sorts of. stuff that we disagree on doesn't matter. because we all hate this other stuff. more and want it to not happen so if we. just hang in together if we just stay. together we like we can actually have a. lot of political clout as a coalition. that rally showed them that so had that. rally not happened it's entirely. possible that Co might not have formed. or not have formed in the way that it.

did form and it certainly wouldn't have. formed in time to basically take over. the Republican party and support the. Reagan presidency for the vast majority. of the 80s like it's astounding to to. think for good and bad what how. different the United States would be. like this is a turning point in American. modern American history this weekend. yeah for sure it's crazy that was by by. the way that was Marjorie spru again. that historian who was being interviewed.

in houstonia. magazine it's just crazy interview yeah. so uh the outcome of all this was um. obviously you know they passed all these. planks they write up their um report I. guess called the spirit of. Houston and they handed it over to. President Carter and Congress so Carter. says you know I support all this stuff. of course uh your goals look pretty. great to me but then like I said at the. very very beginning not a lot actually.

happened uh as far as real practical. moves um there was they extended the uh. and we talked about this in my freshly. remembered ER episode uh where there. were a lot of different cut off dates uh. like you got to get it done by this year. or else it's off the table uh he. extended the time for ratification to. 1982 uh there was some protections uh. against uh discrimination based on. pregnancy they said hey uh you can get.

some social security benefits if you. have been a homaker your whole life and. you got divorced like we're recognizing. that as a job uh for the first time and. a lot of feminists that were there were. like pretty upset by inaction and by the. fact that Carter supported the height. Amendment uh which totally uh took down. the reproductive funding uh plank. basically Banning the use of federal. funding for abortion yeah they were also. really mad at Carter for um cutting.

Social programs to pay for increased. defense spending as well which is not. what you think of when you think of. Jimmy Carter but uh apparently he got a. little more conservative later in his. presidency um and so the the it just. essentially went nowhere like if you. read like um assessments of what what. came out of the women's confererence of. 1977 in Houston most of the most of the. positive silver linning parts are that.

um it helped women come together who. otherwise would not have ever met and. basically swap strategies stap swap. organizing um methods saying like Hey. we're we're organizing like um domestic. abuse shelters and rape crisis centers. and this is how we're doing it and. basically it helped on the Grassroots it. took it took a bunch of different germs. and put them together and they spread um. on beneath the federal level and the. state and local level and it really. helped women advance in that sense but.

federally it went. nowhere almost at all it went almost. nowhere yeah and you know we've uh we. talked a lot in this episode about the. fact that um you know galvanizing. different kinds of women together but. one that we haven't mentioned yet that. Lucy commissar don't turn around uh she. was a nation reporter said to her the. most remarkable aspect was. not bringing together like necessarily.

uh bringing lesbians under their wing. and women of color but bringing women. who might typically vote Republican in. their past bringing them in because they. cared about some of this stuff as well. and you don't have to care about all of. it to support this thing and she was. just like that was the most remarkable. part to her yeah which makes a lot of. sense but unfortunately one of the other. outcomes of that weekend was you do have. to choose like um these these groups. these coalitions Co solidified and in.

opposition to one another so and both of. the the political parties were. essentially forced to choose there was. no like oh actually I kind of agree with. this point over here so I guess I'm. independent I don't know the state of. the country that we live in today that. polarized country you can actually date. it back to this this is the Cradle of it. it's I I just can't stop being in awe of. of the effect that it had. yeah totally I'm always very fascinated.

by the independent voter it's really. interesting to be clear I'm not knocking. independent voters I just I find it. fascinating sure I wasn't knocking them. either it just made me think of. something else I was just trying to cut. off the emails or like Chuck doesn't. Chuck thinks he should vote all one way. that's that's not what I'm saying no no. no no no no I don't think that came. across like that at all no so yeah if. anybody was sending in that email they. would have been wrong wrong wrong hey. you got anything else all right no I'm. done done done okay well Chuck said done. three times in a row which of course. automatically unlocks listener.

mail I thought that meant the Candyman. appeared the Candyman reads listener. mail but the Candyman I'm talking about. you know you mean the kind that brings. you M&M's and stuff right no the kind. that um smoked with a glass eye oh okay. uh all right this is uh this from an. eighth grader we love reading these. kinds of things uh hey Josh Chuck and. Jerry my name is Beatrix great name yeah.

uh I'm an eighth grader in mckin Oregon. I listen to your episodes constantly all. caps and I really wanted to make it to. your Portland show but unfortunately I. missed it uh my mom and I live almost an. hour away from where I go to school and. where she works so we often listen to. your stuff on the way I recently. listened to the rock paper scissors app. and you mentioned that no one plays just. for fun but uh without needing to make a. decision uh but my class does and it. really annoys me because there's no. point also I would love an episode on.

ADHD uh specifically what causes it uh. Beatrix that's coming sort of. soon um I do have a small convention. though guys though I've been listening. for over a year I still can't tell which. one of you is which it's okay I can tell. your voices apart but if I was asked I. wouldn't be able to say uh which one of. you is Josh and which one is Chuck if we. switch from time to time that's right. and if you go to that live show in. Portland next year then you can tell. yeah there you go that's the way they. talk about cognitive dissonance woo yeah.

and how about this Beatrix uh send us an. email from that same thread when we go. to Portland next year and you and. someone else can get on the guest list. very nice how about that you get this. freebie tickets uh so Beatrix finishes. up by saying I'd love if you gave a. shout out to Tech stuff and stuff they I. want you to know. nice oh oh we're going to shout him out. hey way to go text stuff and stuff they. don't want you to know two excellent. podcasts you have great taste tricks our.

longtime friends and colleagues that do. those shows uh and finally I would love. it if you would read this on the air so. me and my mom could hear it on the way. to school and wish me good luck in high. school next year good luck Beatrix high. school is fun you're going to do great. don't you worry about it from the sounds. of this email uh you're just going to. tear it apart I love it KN knock it out. of the park knock it out of the park uh. well if you want to be like Beatrix and. send us a just patent awesome email um.

you can send it to stuff podcast at. iHeart. [Music]. radio.com stuff you should know is a. production of iHeart radio for more. podcasts iHeart Radio visit the iHeart. Radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you. listen to your favorite. shows. [Music].