Women in Modern America

In The Highest Glass Ceiling, best-selling historian Ellen Fitzpatrick tells the story of three remarkable women who set their sights on the American presidency. Victoria Woodhull (1872), Margaret Chase Smith (1964), and Shirley Chisholm (1972) each challenged persistent barriers confronted by women presidential candidates. Their quest illuminates today's political landscape, showing that Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign belongs to a much longer, arduous, and dramatic journey. The tale begins during Reconstruction when the radical Woodhull became the first woman to seek the presidency. Although women could not yet vote, Woodhull boldly staked her claim to the White House, believing she might thereby advance women's equality. Republican Senator Margaret Chase Smith came into political office through the "widow's mandate." Among the most admired women in public life when she launched her 1964 campaign, she soon confronted prejudice that she was too old (at 66) and too female to be a creditable presidential candidate. She nonetheless became the first woman to have her name placed in nomination for President by a major party. Democratic Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm ignored what some openly described as the twin disqualifications of race and gender in her spirited 1972 presidential campaign. She ran all the way to the Democratic convention, inspiring diverse followers and angering opponents, including members of the Nixon administration who sought to derail her candidacy. As The Highest Glass Ceiling reveals, women's pursuit of the Oval Office, then and now, has involved myriad forms of influence, opposition, and intrigue.

Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for president, forced her fellow Americans to come to terms with the full meaning of equality after the Civil War. A sometime collaborator with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, yet never fully accepted into mainstream suffragist circles, Woodhull was a flamboyant social reformer who promoted freedom, especially freedom from societal constraints over intimate relationships. This much we know from the several popular biographies of the nineteenth-century activist. But what we do not know, as Amanda Frisken reveals, is how Woodhull manipulated the emerging popular media and fluid political culture of the Reconstruction period in order to accomplish her political goals. As an editor and public speaker, Woodhull demanded that women and men be held to the same standards in public life. Her political theatrics brought the topic of women's sexuality into the public arena, shocking critics, galvanizing supporters, and finally locking opposing camps into bitter conflict over sexuality and women's rights in marriage. A woman who surrendered her own privacy, whose life was grist for the mills of a sensation-mongering press, she made the exposure of others' secrets a powerful tool of social change. Woodhull's political ambitions became inseparable from her sexual nonconformity, yet her skill in using contemporary media kept her revolutionary ideas continually before her peers. In this way Woodhull contributed to long-term shifts in attitudes about sexuality and the slow liberation of marriage and other social institutions. Using contemporary sources such as images from the "sporting news," Frisken takes a fresh look at the heyday of this controversial women's rights activist, discovering Woodhull's previously unrecognized importance in the turbulent climate of Radical Reconstruction and making her a useful lens through which to view the shifting sexual mores of the nineteenth century.

Foreword by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg A legal historian recounts the influential life of women's rights activist Belva Lockwood, the first woman to practice at the bar of the Supreme Court In Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President, prize-winning legal historian Jill Norgren recounts, for the first time, the life story of one of the nineteenth century's most surprising and accomplished advocates for women's rights. As Norgren shows, Lockwood was fearless in confronting the male establishment, commanding the attention of presidents, members of Congress, influential writers, and everyday Americans. Obscured for too long in the historical shadow of her longtime colleague, Susan B. Anthony, Lockwood steps into the limelight at last in this engaging new biography. Born on a farm in upstate New York in 1830, Lockwood married young and reluctantly became a farmer's wife. After her husband's premature death, however, she earned a college degree, became a teacher, and moved to Washington, DC with plans to become an attorney-an occupation all but closed to women. Not only did she become one of the first female attorneys in the U.S., but in 1879 became the first woman ever allowed to practice at the bar of the Supreme Court. In 1884 Lockwood continued her trailblazing ways as the first woman to run a full campaign for the U.S. Presidency. She ran for President again in 1888. Although her candidacies were unsuccessful (as she knew they would be), Lockwood demonstrated that women could compete with men in the political arena. After these campaigns she worked tirelessly on behalf of the Universal Peace Union, hoping, until her death in 1917, that she, or the organization, would win the Nobel Peace Prize. Belva Lockwood deserves to be far better known. As Norgren notes, it is likely that Lockwood would be widely recognized today as a feminist pioneer if most of her personal papers had not been destroyed after her death. Fortunately for readers, Norgren shares much of her subject's tenacity and she has ensured Lockwood's rightful place in history with this meticulously researched and beautifully written book.

In the presidential election of 2008 America seemed ready to elevate a woman to the presidency or vice presidency and-with Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin-was on the verge of actually doing so. Words like inevitable and phenomenon were in the air and the political and cultural stars seemed to be aligned. Why didn't it happen? What will it take to make it happen soon? In a probing analysis sure to ignite controversy, acclaimed White House correspondent Anne Kornblut argues that the optimists are blind to formidable obstacles that still stand in the way of any woman who aims for America's highest political offices. And she makes clear exactly which strategies and common assumptions will need to change if a woman intends to break through the "highest, hardest glass ceiling" of all. Delving deep inside the Clinton and Palin campaigns, Kornblut reveals: * the strategists' mishandling of their candidates as women by failing to strike the right balance between femininity and toughness * Clinton's weathering of a series of stinging gender-based attacks, until accusations of "pimping out" her daughter, Chelsea, finally brought her to tears * that Barack Obama was celebrated for his "historic" win in Iowa, even though it was not the first time an African American had won a caucus, but few noticed when Clinton became the first woman to win a primary in New Hampshire * that Palin was chosen solely by men, none of whom had experience in running women for office. Drawing from exclusive interviews with prominent women in both parties, Kornblut pinpoints where politically ambitious American women have gone wrong and what it will take to put them on track to the ultimate prize: the presidency. Former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice asserts: "We crossed the bar on African Americans some time ago. I'm not quite sure we've crossed it on women." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi remarks on the "suit of armor" women must don to survive the sexism and viciousness of politics. Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano confronts the false rumors that she is a lesbian and reveals what an invigorating "kick in the pants" it is to be in politics. And California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, the former head of eBay, compares politics to business: "It feels to me, thus far, as less of a meritocracy and more of a popularity contest. More of a little bit of an old boys' club." Kornblut identifies the surprising realities of gender politics, such as the harsh treatment female candidates often receive from women voters, the gap between the United States and other countries when it comes to the electability of women, the "mommy penalty" that handicaps women candidates with young children, and the special appeal that women with law enforcement backgrounds have with voters. Notes from the Cracked Ceiling reveals that the highly touted new era of gender-equal politics never got as far as was commonly perceived and is now in full retreat. It is essential reading for anyone who cares about politics and the limits for women that persist.

When Hillary Clinton announced her 2008 bid for president she was the Democratic front-runner. Despite this, she received less coverage than Barack Obama, who trailed her in the polls. Such a disparity is indicative of the gender bias the media has demonstrated in covering women candidates since the first woman ran for America's highest office in 1872. Tracing the campaigns of eight women who ran for president through 2004--Victoria Woodhull, Belva Lockwood, Margaret Chase Smith, Shirley Chisholm, Patricia Schroeder, Lenora Fulani, Elizabeth Dole, and Carol Moseley Braun--Erika Falk finds little progress in the fair treatment of women candidates. A thorough comparison of the women's campaigns to those of their male opponents reveals a worrisome trend of sexism in press coverage--a trend that still persists today. While women have been elected to the highest offices in countries such as England, Germany, and India, the idea that a woman could be president of the United States provokes scoffs and ridicule. The press portrays female candidates as unviable, unnatural, and incompetent, and often ignores or belittles women instead of reporting their ideas and intent. Since voters learn most details about presidential candidates through media outlets, Falk asserts that this prevailing bias calls into question the modern democratic assumption that men and women have comparable access to positions of power.

No Place for a Woman is the first biography to analyze Margaret Chase Smith's life and times by using politics and gender as the lens through which we can understand this Maine senator's impact on American politics and American women. Sherman's research is based upon more than one hundred hours of personal interviews with Senator Smith, and extensive research in primary and government documents, including those from the holdings of the Margaret Chase Smith Library.

Madam President? The question is not if, but rather when the United States will elect a female president - but timing may be the only certainty involved in shattering this most visible glass ceiling in U.S. society. Who will be included in the field of candidates for Madam President, and why? How will she have to position herself for a viable run at the Oval Office? Once in office, will she encounter gender-based biases in her handling of military and foreign affairs? Will Madam President blend seamlessly with the long line of Mr. Presidents - or will the very nature of the presidency be irrevocably changed? Anticipating Madam President's insightful blend of analysis, profiles, and interviews with prominent political women illustrates the realities of women in the upper echelons of public life, as well as the challenges likely to face a woman in one of the world's most powerful political positions.

At a time when presidential campaigns are shaped to appeal to women voters, when masculinity constructs impinge on wartime leaders, and when the United States appears to move towards the possibility of a woman president, it is vital that communication scholarship addresses the issue of gender and politics in a comprehensive manner. Gender and Political Communication in America: Rhetoric, Representation, and Display takes on this challenge, as it investigates, from a rhetorical and critical standpoint, the intersection and mutual influences of gender and political communication as they are realized in the nation's political discourse. Representing some of the leading investigators on gender and political communication, as well as emerging scholars, the volume's contributors update and interrogate contemporary issues of gendered politics applicable to the 21st century, including the historic 2008 election. Through their original research, the contributors offer critical examinations of the impact of salient theories and models of gender studies as they relate to historical and contemporary roles and practices in the political sphere. Gender and Political Communication in America's broad and diverse engagement with the subject matter makes it a must-read for those interested in women's studies and political communication.

Two respected Washington pundits offer a forward-looking history of women in politics -- from envelope-stuffing in the 1960s to the prospect of a woman president in the next decade. A striking aspect of our new century's first election season has been the vitality American women are injecting into the proceedings -- as candidates, strategists, and voters. In the 1990s, their influence redefined the nature of politics. Bill Clinton won his elections largely on the strength of women's votes, and Senator Bob Packwood was compelled to resign in the face of women's outrage over his sexual misconduct. So how did we get here? From journalists Eleanor Clift and Tom Brazaitis comes a story of passion, determination, and triumph. They chronicle women's remarkable progress -- from their coffee-fetching days to their ability to make or break candidates in the new millennium -- in chapters such as "A Call to Arms" and "The Rules for Women." From there, the authors examine today's prospects and look ahead in "The Governor Gap," "Hurrying History," and "Women in Waiting," identifying those most likely to have an impact on the future. Highli

FOR THE PAPERBACK RELEASE: The prominent political women of today stand upon the shoulders of those who spent the last two hundred years building a foundation for women's political participation. Jo Freeman brings to us the rich story of how American women entered into political life and party politics--well before suffrage and often completely separate from it. She shows that women's early political involvement was focused on the Republican party, very different from the situation today. And she builds up to the explosion of women's political activisim of the 1960s and 1970s, connecting past to future by tracing the roots of key political strategies still being debated in the early 21st century. Now for the first time in paperback, A Room at a Time is considered a landmark of original research into women's political history as well as party politics.

An original and timely examination of women's long history of participating in partisan politics, Women and the Republican Party, 1854-1924 explores the forces that propelled women to partisan activism in an era of widespread disfranchisement and provides a new perspective on how women fashioned their political strategies and identities before and after 1920. Melanie Susan Gustafson examines women's partisan history as part of the larger history of women's political culture. Contesting the accepted notion that women were uninvolved in political parties before they formally got the vote, Gustafson reveals the length and depth of women's partisan activism between the founding of the Republican party, whose abolitionist agenda captured the loyalty of many women, and the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. Women and the Republican Party, 1854-1924 presents the complex interplay of partisan and nonpartisan activity, the fierce debates among women about the best way to make their influence felt, and the ebb and flow of enthusiasm for women's participation within the Republican party. Gustafson documents the emergence of third parties--in particular the Progressive party, which split off from the Republican party in 1912--that fused the civic world of reform organizations with the electoral world of voting and legislation. She also profiles the leading women Republicans and activists, both familiar (Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Jane Addams, Mary Church Terrell) and less well known (Anna Dickinson, Victoria Woodhull, Judith Ellen Foster, Mary Ann Shadd Cary).

Women in American Politics: History and Milestones is a unique and comprehensive new reference detailing the milestones and trends in women's political participation in the United States. This two-volume work provides much needed perspective and background on the events and situations that have surrounded women's political activities. Women in American Politics offers insightful analysis on women's political achievements in the United States, including the campaign to secure nation-wide suffrage; pioneer women state officeholders; women first elected to U.S. Congress, governorships, mayoralties, and other offices; and women first appointed as Cabinet officials, judges, and ambassadors. It also includes profiles of the women who have run for president and vice president, and interest groups and political actions committees. Women in American Politics is organized in a framework both logical and useful to readers and researchers. The reference offers students, scholars, teachers, and other professionals a guide to understanding the complex struggle in women's progress toward achieving political parity with men in the United States. Each chapter is structured in three parts: Part one features graphic information--tables, lists, and charts--detailing the historical record with data not compiled anywhere else, on women officeholders. Part two offers insightful narrative analyses describing how women achieved what they did, examining the complex and sometimes contradictory trends behind the facts of women's political milestones, and exploring how social and economic contexts affected the progress of their accomplishments. Part three presents biographical profiles of women who have been the movers and shakers in the struggle for political equality. Sidebars in each chapter illuminate the drama of political life and consider the evolving female electorate, exploring how women voters have influenced particular issues, specific elections, or other key turning points, and also the tradition of appointing widows to open seats. The final chapter uniquely looks at women's political history and differences in achievement from a state and regional perspective. Entries on each state highlight milestones and provide key facts about officeholders. Academic, public, and school libraries as well as the media, current and aspiring political leaders, and students of women's history will wan this book on their shelves.