Activist Pauli Murray said that all you needed to start a revolution is a typewriter…

And a lot of guts.

This is the story of how Title IX came to pass and how the women behind the scenes in Washington, D.C. created the academic sex revolution. The nerdy revolutionaries: Bunny Sandler, Patsy T. Mink, Edith Green, and Pauli Murray, among others—women who left behind clues about their lives, not just what they achieved, but how they did it, and who they were, little pieces that we pick up and find along the way.

Host Leigh Fondakowski and an all-star cast led by Jodie Foster and Samira Wiley, dig deep into the archives to uncover and reveal the secret origin of Title IX.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We meet Dr. Bernice “Bunny” Sandler through her great niece, Rora Brodwin. Rora interviewed her Great Aunt Bunny twice – once when she was in the 7th grade and once when she was a college senior – both times for school projects about Title IX.  

However the first time Rora is too young to fully understand her Great Aunt Bunny’s pivotal role in the women’s movement and the second time Bunny is too old to remember the details. 

What happens when nobody is left who remembers a story? We bridge the generational gap to resurrect that lost history.

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Feminist Files is written and produced by Leigh Fondakowski and Sarah Lambert

Featuring the Feminist Files Ensemble:

Jodie Foster as Dr. Bernice “Bunny” Sandler

Samira Wiley as Pauli Murray

Amy Hill as Representative Patsy Takemoto Mink

Mercedes Hererro as Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Edith Green, Alice Paul, Phyllis Schlafly, and ensemble parts

Margo Hall as Commissioner Frankie Freeman and ensemble parts

Chris Rickett as Vincent Macaluso and ensemble parts

Victoria Libertore as Ann Scott

Christina Sajous as Shirley Chisholm

And Alex Grubbs, Jules Latimer, Ronald Peet, RyanNicole in ensemble parts

Associate producers: Margo Hall, Victoria Libertore, and Diana Park

Executive producers: Stacey Book, Dominique Ferrari, Avi Glijansky, and Rora Brodwin

Original Music and Sound Design by: Gary Grundei

Theme music created by: Gary Grundei with vocals by Silversmith

Sound Engineering by: Julian Kwasneski

Additional Engineering by: Donovan Dorrance

Special Thanks to: Wendy Mink, Julia Lamber, Jean Robinson, The Scheslinger Library and its staff, Shari Hoffman, Charlotte Sheedy, and the estate of Pauli Murray.

For more visit frequencymachine.com/feministfiles

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Leigh goes to the Schlesinger Library to search through Great Aunt Bunny’s papers and finds an unpublished oral history, the origin story of Title IX. 

Jodie Foster, as Bunny, brings us into the story of how she found the footnote that would become the legal basis for Title IX – and how she used it to start taking on the most powerful universities in the nation.

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Feminist Files is written and produced by Leigh Fondakowski and Sarah Lambert

Featuring the Feminist Files Ensemble:

Jodie Foster as Dr. Bernice “Bunny” Sandler

Samira Wiley as Pauli Murray

Amy Hill as Representative Patsy Takemoto Mink

Mercedes Hererro as Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Edith Green, Alice Paul, Phyllis Schlafly, and ensemble parts

Margo Hall as Commissioner Frankie Freeman and ensemble parts

Chris Rickett as Vincent Macaluso and ensemble parts

Victoria Libertore as Ann Scott

Christina Sajous as Shirley Chisholm

And Alex Grubbs, Jules Latimer, Ronald Peet, RyanNicole in ensemble parts

Associate producers: Margo Hall, Victoria Libertore, and Diana Park

Executive producers: Stacey Book, Dominique Ferrari, Avi Glijansky, and Rora Brodwin

Original Music and Sound Design by: Gary Grundei

Theme music created by: Gary Grundei with vocals by Silversmith

Sound Engineering by: Julian Kwasneski

Additional Engineering by: Donovan Dorrance

Special Thanks to: Wendy Mink, Julia Lamber, Jean Robinson, The Scheslinger Library and its staff, Shari Hoffman, Charlotte Sheedy, and the estate of Pauli Murray.

For more visit frequencymachine.com/feministfiles

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Representative Edith Green of Oregon, known as Mrs. Education in Congress, wants to hold hearings about sex discrimination in Higher Education, but she doesn’t think she has the evidence she needs to do anything about it – until she meets Bunny Sandler. 

For 5 days in June 1970, Edith Green holds hearings on how widespread sex discrimination is in higher education. Bunny and other key players testify.

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Feminist Files is written and produced by Leigh Fondakowski and Sarah Lambert

Featuring the Feminist Files Ensemble:

Jodie Foster as Dr. Bernice “Bunny” Sandler

Samira Wiley as Pauli Murray

Amy Hill as Representative Patsy Takemoto Mink

Mercedes Hererro as Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Edith Green, Alice Paul, Phyllis Schlafly, and ensemble parts

Margo Hall as Commissioner Frankie Freeman and ensemble parts

Chris Rickett as Vincent Macaluso and ensemble parts

Victoria Libertore as Ann Scott

Christina Sajous as Shirley Chisholm

And Alex Grubbs, Jules Latimer, Ronald Peet, RyanNicole in ensemble parts

Associate producers: Margo Hall, Victoria Libertore, and Diana Park

Executive producers: Stacey Book, Dominique Ferrari, Avi Glijansky, and Rora Brodwin

Original Music and Sound Design by: Gary Grundei

Theme music created by: Gary Grundei with vocals by Silversmith

Sound Engineering by: Julian Kwasneski

Additional Engineering by: Donovan Dorrance

Special Thanks to: Wendy Mink, Julia Lamber, Jean Robinson, The Scheslinger Library and its staff, Shari Hoffman, Charlotte Sheedy, and the estate of Pauli Murray.

For more visit frequencymachine.com/feministfiles

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

As the hearings continue, Edith Green dives into territory beyond education; reaching a tense crescendo as Green presses Frankie Freeman, the only Black woman serving on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, as to which is worse: sexism or racism in America? 

A very salient conversation about intersectionality ensues decades before that term even existed.

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Feminist Files is written and produced by Leigh Fondakowski and Sarah Lambert

Featuring the Feminist Files Ensemble:

Jodie Foster as Dr. Bernice “Bunny” Sandler

Samira Wiley as Pauli Murray

Amy Hill as Representative Patsy Takemoto Mink

Mercedes Hererro as Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Edith Green, Alice Paul, Phyllis Schlafly, and ensemble parts

Margo Hall as Commissioner Frankie Freeman and ensemble parts

Chris Rickett as Vincent Macaluso and ensemble parts

Victoria Libertore as Ann Scott

Christina Sajous as Shirley Chisholm

And Alex Grubbs, Jules Latimer, Ronald Peet, RyanNicole in ensemble parts

Associate producers: Margo Hall, Victoria Libertore, and Diana Park

Executive producers: Stacey Book, Dominique Ferrari, Avi Glijansky, and Rora Brodwin

Original Music and Sound Design by: Gary Grundei

Theme music created by: Gary Grundei with vocals by Silversmith

Sound Engineering by: Julian Kwasneski

Additional Engineering by: Donovan Dorrance

Special Thanks to: Wendy Mink, Julia Lamber, Jean Robinson, The Scheslinger Library and its staff, Shari Hoffman, Charlotte Sheedy, and the estate of Pauli Murray.

For more visit frequencymachine.com/feministfiles

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

There were no official audio or video recordings of the Edith Green hearings – only a printed transcript that her office produced and distributed. However, Leigh discovers that the Schlesinger Library also contains the collected papers – and some recordings – of activist and Civil Rights attorney Pauli Murray, who testified alongside Bunny Sandler. 

As Leigh uncovers these tapes, we discover the real Pauli Murray, perhaps one of the most singularly important feminist and Civil Rights activists of the 20th century … who you may not have ever heard of.

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Feminist Files is written and produced by Leigh Fondakowski and Sarah Lambert

Featuring the Feminist Files Ensemble:

Jodie Foster as Dr. Bernice “Bunny” Sandler

Samira Wiley as Pauli Murray

Amy Hill as Representative Patsy Takemoto Mink

Mercedes Hererro as Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Edith Green, Alice Paul, Phyllis Schlafly, and ensemble parts

Margo Hall as Commissioner Frankie Freeman and ensemble parts

Chris Rickett as Vincent Macaluso and ensemble parts

Victoria Libertore as Ann Scott

Christina Sajous as Shirley Chisholm

And Alex Grubbs, Jules Latimer, Ronald Peet, RyanNicole in ensemble parts

Associate producers: Margo Hall, Victoria Libertore, and Diana Park

Executive producers: Stacey Book, Dominique Ferrari, Avi Glijansky, and Rora Brodwin

Original Music and Sound Design by: Gary Grundei

Theme music created by: Gary Grundei with vocals by Silversmith

Sound Engineering by: Julian Kwasneski

Additional Engineering by: Donovan Dorrance

Special Thanks to: Wendy Mink, Julia Lamber, Jean Robinson, The Scheslinger Library and its staff, Shari Hoffman, Charlotte Sheedy, and the estate of Pauli Murray.

For more visit frequencymachine.com/feministfiles

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Returning to the Bunny Sandler Collection at the Schlesinger, Leigh finds a folder of letters between Bunny and Pauli Murray, chronicling their growing camaraderie and friendship. The two share stories from the year’s struggles - the fight for the ERA, which is gaining steam and a new stealth campaign for legislation that could become Title IX.  

These two landmark legislative goals are still up for grabs in this election year, when Women are proving a force to be reckoned with.  Women like activist Flo Kennedy, who is going to raise the roof, like that hurricane off the coast of Florida.

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Feminist Files is written and produced by Leigh Fondakowski and Sarah Lambert

Featuring the Feminist Files Ensemble:

Jodie Foster as Dr. Bernice “Bunny” Sandler

Samira Wiley as Pauli Murray

Amy Hill as Representative Patsy Takemoto Mink

Mercedes Hererro as Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Edith Green, Alice Paul, Phyllis Schlafly, and ensemble parts

Margo Hall as Commissioner Frankie Freeman and ensemble parts

Chris Rickett as Vincent Macaluso and ensemble parts

Victoria Libertore as Ann Scott

Christina Sajous as Shirley Chisholm

And Alex Grubbs, Jules Latimer, Ronald Peet, RyanNicole in ensemble parts

Associate producers: Margo Hall, Victoria Libertore, and Diana Park

Executive producers: Stacey Book, Dominique Ferrari, Avi Glijansky, and Rora Brodwin

Original Music and Sound Design by: Gary Grundei

Theme music created by: Gary Grundei with vocals by Silversmith

Sound Engineering by: Julian Kwasneski

Additional Engineering by: Donovan Dorrance

Special Thanks to: Wendy Mink, Julia Lamber, Jean Robinson, The Scheslinger Library and its staff, Shari Hoffman, Charlotte Sheedy, and the estate of Pauli Murray.

For more visit frequencymachine.com/feministfiles

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Between the first part of our story and the second - we take a moment to pause and reflect on the role Title IX played in Leigh’s early life, when the budding activist in Leigh was born, and the relationship of the artist to history – how the personal is the political – setting the stage for what’s yet to come.

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Feminist Files is written and produced by Leigh Fondakowski and Sarah Lambert

Featuring the Feminist Files Ensemble:

Jodie Foster as Dr. Bernice “Bunny” Sandler

Samira Wiley as Pauli Murray

Amy Hill as Representative Patsy Takemoto Mink

Mercedes Hererro as Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Edith Green, Alice Paul, Phyllis Schlafly, and ensemble parts

Margo Hall as Commissioner Frankie Freeman and ensemble parts

Chris Rickett as Vincent Macaluso and ensemble parts

Victoria Libertore as Ann Scott

Christina Sajous as Shirley Chisholm

And Alex Grubbs, Jules Latimer, Ronald Peet, RyanNicole in ensemble parts

Associate producers: Margo Hall, Victoria Libertore, and Diana Park

Executive producers: Stacey Book, Dominique Ferrari, Avi Glijansky, and Rora Brodwin

Original Music and Sound Design by: Gary Grundei

Theme music created by: Gary Grundei with vocals by Silversmith

Sound Engineering by: Julian Kwasneski

Additional Engineering by: Donovan Dorrance

Special Thanks to: Wendy Mink, Julia Lamber, Jean Robinson, The Scheslinger Library and its staff, Shari Hoffman, Charlotte Sheedy, and the estate of Pauli Murray.

For more visit frequencymachine.com/feministfiles

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.