Play Guide September 28-October 20, 2019 by Emily Mann directed by Risa Brainin 2019 and the recent past. This new work by Tony Award-winning playwright Emily Mann celebrates the life of one of the most important figures of America's feminist movement! Nearly half a century later, Ms. Steinem's fight for gender equality is still a battle yet to besimplifying won. IT 30 East Tenth Street Saint Paul, MN 55101 651-292-4323 Box Office 651-292-4320 Group Sales historytheatre.com Page 2 Emily Mann—Playwright Pages 3-4 Gloria Steinem Timeline Page 5-7 Equal Rights Amendment Page 8-11 Second Wave Feminism Page 12 National Women’s Conference Page 13 Phyllis Schlafly Pages 14-15 Milestones in U.S. Women’s History Page 16 Discussion Questions/Activities Page 17 Books by Gloria Steinem able of Content T Play Guide published by History Theatre c2019 Emily Mann (Playwright, Artistic Director/Resident Playwright) is in her 30th and final season as Artistic Director and Resident Playwright at the McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, New Jersey. Her nearly 50 McCarter directing credits include acclaimed produc- tions by Shakespeare, Chekhov, Ibsen, and Williams and the world premieres of Christopher Durang’s Turning Off the Morning News and Miss Witherspoon; Ken Ludwig’s Murder on the Orient Express; Rachel Bonds’ Five Mile Lake; Danai Guri- ra’s The Convert; Sarah Treem’s The How and the Why; and Edward Albee’s Me, Myself & I. Broadway: A Streetcar Named Desire, Anna in the Tropics, Execution of Justice, Having Our Say. Her plays: Having Our Say, adapted from the book by Sarah L. Delany and A. Elizabeth Delany with Amy Hill Hearth; Execution of Jus- tice; Still Life; Annulla, An Autobiography; Greensboro (A Requiem); Meshugah; Mrs. Packard, and Hoodwinked (a Primer on Radical Islamism). Adaptations: Baby Doll, Scenes from a Marriage, Uncle Vanya, The Cherry Orchard, A Seagull in the Hamptons, The House of Bernarda Alba, Antigone. Currently in development: The Pianist. Her new play Gloria: A Life about the legacy of Gloria Steinem will open McCarter’s season this year after a successful run in Ne w York at The Daryl Roth Theater. Awards include: Peabody, Hull Warriner, NAACP, Obies, Guggenheim; Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle nominations; a Princeton University Honorary Doctorate of Arts, a Helen Merrill Distinguished Playwrights' Award, the Margo Jones Award given to a "citizen-of-the-theater who has demonstrated a lifetime commitment to the encouragement of the living theater everywhere”. During her 30 year tenure, Mann has committed to supporting the work of playwrights past, present, and future including: Ayad Akhtar, Edward Albee, David Auburn, Eleanor Burgess, Marina Carr, Nilo Cruz, Nathan Allan Davis, Lydia Diamond, Selina Fillinger, Athol Fugard, John Guare, Beth Henley, Naomi Iizuka, Arthur Kopit, Tarell Emily Mann Alvin McCraney, Lynn Nottage, Dael Orlandersmith, Will Power, Heather Raffo, Theresa Rebeck, Sarah Ruhl, Ntozake Shange, Regina Taylor, August Wilson, Doug Wright, and Mary Zimmerman. This year, she was awarded the TCG Visionary Leadership Award. Biography from The McCarter Theatre Center website. Last updated May 2019. mccarter.org 2 March 25, 1934— Born in Toledo, Ohio 1948 – Enters high school 1954 – Sails to Paris to study 1956 – Engaged to Blair Chotzinoff, ub t breaks it off 1956 – Graduates Phi Beta Kappa from Smith College 1956-1958 - Lives in India on a Chester Bowles Fellowship 1960 – Begins to work at “Help!” Magazine in New York City GLORIA STEINEM GLORIA 1961 – Father dies 1963 – Works as a bunny at the Playboy Club in order to expose the poor pay and working conditions the women face 1968 - Begins writing the column, "The City Politic," for New York magazine 1969 – After meeting with other women on the topic of abortion, Steinem begins to speak and write about feminism 1970 - Testifies fbe ore the United States Senate on behalf of the Equal Rights Amendment (first introduced by Alice Paul during the 1st feminist movement) 1971 - Co-founds Ms. Magazine – 1st magazine to be created and operated entirely by women 1971 - Co-founds the National Women’s Political Caucus (increases the number of women in political field) 1972 – Mother dies 3 1971 - Co-founds the National Women's Political Caucus, which works to increase the number of women in politics 1973 - Co-founds the Ms. Foundation for Women November 18-21, 1977 - Organizes the National Women's conference in Houston. The conference is the first to be backed by the US government, and its purpose was not lawmaking but proposing recommendations for widespread gender equality 1983 - Steinem's collection of essays "Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions" is published 1992 - Steinem's book "Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem" is published April 22, 1993 - Celebrates the first "Take Our Daughters To Work Day," an educational program created by the Ms. Foundation to give girls a voice and presence in the workplace 1993 - Inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame January 12, 1993 - Co-produces the movie for television "Better off Dead" an examination of the parallels between abortion and the death penalty 1996 - Creates the Women and AIDS Fund with the Ms. Foundation to support women living with HIV/AIDS 2005 - Co-founds the Women's Media Center with Jane Fonda and Robin Morgan 2006 - Steinem's book "Doing Sixty & Seventy" is published August 15, 2011 - The HBO documentary "Gloria: In Her Own Words" airs 2013 - Steinem is a subject in the PBS documentary "Makers," a project that aims to record the stories of women who "made America" November 20, 2013 - Awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama October 27, 2015 - Her memoir "My Life on the Road" is published February 5, 2016 - Steinem makes a controversial comment on "Real Time with Bill Maher," saying young women are supporting Senator Bernie Sanders in the presidential race because "the boys are with Bernie" May 10, 2016 - Steinem's television show "WOMAN" premieres on VICELAND October 18, 2018 - Gloria—A Life! opens at the Daryl Roth Theatre Works Cited Gloriasteinem.com Karbo, Karen. In Praise of Difficult Women. National Geographic, Washington DC 2018. Heibrun, Carolyn G. The Education of a Woman: The Life of Gloria Steinem. Random House, New York, 1995. Steinem, Gloria. Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions. Holt Books, New York, 1983. 4 In some ways, the feminist movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries culminated with the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution that finally gave American women the right to vote. Many feminists in the 1960s and 1970s felt that adding the Equal Rights Amendment would be the next step in the movement for women’s equality. On March 22, 2017, Nevada became the 36th state and the first state in 40 years to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment with Illinois being the last to do so on May 30, 2018. First introduced by Alice Paul in 1923, the ERA aimed to overturn the many forms of sex discrimination that persisted after women attained the vote in 1920. The original text of the ERA, written by Paul, read simply: “Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction.” The goal of the ERA was to erase sex as a basis of legal classification, but the vast majority of activist women rejected this line of thinking. Opponents argued that women were different from men and, as such, needed legal protection, not legal equality. Women’s groups, labor unions, and others representing female factory workers had long pushed for protective legislation to spare women from the worst industrial ills of the era, such as unregulated hours on the job and dangerous working conditions. Opponents feared that the ERA would harm working-class women by invalidating gender-based workplace safety laws. Paul and her allies argued that the ERA would require safety laws that protected both men and women. These debates divided the women’s movement. By the end of the decade, not a single state had passed an equal rights provision and, along with many other reform movements, the women’s movement lost momentum and supporters. Throughout the Great Depression and World War II, women entered the workforce in record EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT RIGHTS EQUAL numbers. Business and professional women’s groups continued to endorse the ERA, but women in labor and politics remained opposed. In 1940, the Republican Party endorsed the ERA in its platform, and the Democratic Party followed suit in 1944. In 1943, Alice Paul rewrote the text of the Equal Rights Amendment and, notably, removed the word “women.” The revised (and current) text reads: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.” 5 Despite vocal opposition from women’s groups, including the League of Women Voters, the American Association of University Women, and the Young Women’s Christian Association, the ERA first came to the Senate floor in 1946. In a vote of 38 to 35, it achieved a simple majority but fell short of the necessary two-thirds required. Cheering the ERA’s first Senate defeat, the New York Times proclaimed, “Motherhood cannot be amended.” In 1960, after newly elected President John F. Kennedy failed to appoint any woman as a cabinet secretary, longtime female activists in the Democratic Party demanded inclusion. Specifically, they proposed the creation of a Commission on the Status of Women to be led by Eleanor Roosevelt. Esther Peterson, head of the Labor Department Women’s Bureau, supported both equal pay and protective legislation. On October 11, 1963, the 24-member commission submitted its proposals to “enable women to continue their roles as wives and mothers while making a maximum contribution to the world around them.” In particular, the report recommended the removal of legal barriers to jury service, divorce and custody law reform, and federal support for daycare.