Women in Politics

Women on the Run challenges the prevailing view of gender bias and argues that the declining novelty of women in politics, coupled with the polarization of the Republican and Democratic parties, has left little space for the gender of a candidate to influence modern campaigns. The book includes in-depth analyses of the 2010 and 2014 congressional elections, which reveal that male and female House candidates communicate similar messages on the campaign trail, receive similar coverage in the local press, and garner similar evaluations from voters in their districts. When they run for office, male and female candidates not only perform equally well on Election Day - they also face a very similar electoral landscape.

This volume demonstrates how the intersection of race and gender creates unique situations for representation and candidates' electability.

This study grapples with the complex array of opportunities and challenges that face women as both legislative candidates and elected officials. It addresses various aspects of navigating the political field, from campaign finance to the significance of race and ethnicity, from media relations to how women advance within the ranks of the elite, along with other related topics.

This book is designed as a reader on the topic of women and politics to aid in integrating the study of women in the political system. It provides relevant research on women and politics across a spectrum of subject areas and perspectives. With a feminist theoretical framework, it examines some gender differences in political attitudes and voting, looks at gender cultural relations in the mass media and group politics, and examines how women have fared in competing for public office. Also discussed are the various branches of government and how women are or are not participating within those functions of government; an exploration of the intersection of women and national public policy; and the role of women in regards to their activism, empowerment, changing roles and cultural expression(s).

Arguing that the field of women and politics has "come of age" and edited by best-selling author Karen O'Connor, this reader includes both classic and contemporary readings on women and politics and provides students with an understanding of current research in the area, a sense the evolution of the field of women and politics over time, and ideas of where the research is likely to go in the future. 

Barbara Burrell presents a comprehensive comparative examination of men's and women's candidacies for the U.S. House of Representatives in elections from 1994 through 2012.

Chapters written by noted political scientists describe the challenges congresswomen face, while also illustrating the fundamental and advanced techniques vital to winning an election, and show how congresswomen have been most effective once in office. Additional discussions involve campaign finance, speaking on the floor, introducing new legislation, and political action committees have contributed to the success of women politicians. Touching upon the effect of media on election outcomes, along with the media's overall role and portrayal of congresswomen is mentioned. There are also insightful discussions about the ways that Democratic and Republican women view political issues like the political glass ceiling (how incumbency, gender, and strategy play a role in elections) and many more important topics!

Based on extensive interviews and historical research, this book examines differences between Republican and Democratic political cultures, how these differences affect women members of Congress as they pursue agendas and seek to bolster their electability, and the effectiveness of women within an institution traditionally dominated by men.

As the number of women in the U.S. Senate grows, so does the number of citizens represented by women senators. At the same time, gender remains a key factor in senators’ communications to constituents as well as in news media portrayals of senators. Focusing on 32 male and female senators during the 2006 congressional election year, Kim L. Fridkin and Patrick J. Kenney examine in detail senators’ official websites, several thousand press releases and local news stories, and surveys of 18,000 citizens to discern constituents’ attitudes about their senators. The authors conclude that gender role expectations and stereotypes do indeed constrain representational and campaign messages and influence news coverage of both candidates and elected senators. Further, while citizens appear to be less influenced by entrenched stereotypes, they pay more attention to female senators’ messages and become more knowledgeable about them, in comparison to male senators.

Although no woman has yet served as president of the United States, women have played important roles within the executive branch--and they have found many ways to exert pressure on the president. In this imaginative and illuminating work, presidential scholar Janet M. Martin studies the influence of women on and in the American executive branch. Chapters focus on the Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter administrations

In Gender and the American Presidency: Nine Presidential Women and the Barriers They Faced, Theodore F. Sheckels, Nichola D. Gutgold, and Diana Bartelli Carlin invite the audience to consider women qualified enough to be president and explores reasons why they have been dismissed as presidential contenders. This analysis profiles key presidential contenders including Barbara Mikulski, Nancy Pelosi, Nancy Kassebaum, Kathleen Sebelius, Christine Gregoire, Linda Lingle, Elizabeth Dole, Dianne Feinstein, and Olympia Snowe. Gender barriers, media coverage, communication style, geography, and other factors are examined to determine why these seemingly qualified, powerful politicos failed to win the White House.

Frances Perkins is no longer a household name, yet she was one of the most influential women of the twentieth century. Frances Perkins was named Secretary of Labor by Franklin Roosevelt in 1933. As the first female cabinet secretary, she spearheaded the fight to improve the lives of America's working people while juggling her own complex family responsibilities.

YES SHE CAN is an intimate look at Obama's presidency through the eyes of some of the most successful, and completely relatable, young women who were there. Full of wisdom they wish they could impart to their younger selves and a message about the need for more girls in government, these recollections are about stepping out into the spotlight and up to the challenge--something every girl can do. With contributions from Jenna Brayton, Eleanor Celeste, Nita Contreras, Kalisha Dessources Figures, Molly Dillon, Andrea R. Flores, Vivian P. Graubard, Noemie C. Levy, Taylor Lustig, and Jaimie Woo.

The Supreme Court is one of the most traditional institutions in America that has been an exclusively male domain for almost two hundred years. From 1981 to 2010, four women were appointed to the Supreme Court for the first time in U.S. history. The Rhetoric of Supreme Court Women: From Obstacles to Options, by Nichola D. Gutgold, analyzes the rhetoric of the first four women elected to the Supreme Court: Sandra Day O Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan. Gutgold s thorough exploration of these pioneering women s rhetorical strategies includes confirmation hearings, primary scripts of their written opinions, invited public lectures, speeches, and personal interviews with Justices O Connor, Ginsburg, and Sotomayor. These illuminating documents and interviews form rhetorical biographies of the first four women of the Supreme Court, shedding new light on the rise of political women in the American judiciary and the efficacy of their rhetoric in a historically male-dominated political system.

Until President Jimmy Carter launched an effort to diversify the lower federal courts, the U.S. courts of appeals had been composed almost entirely of white males. But by 2008, over a quarter of sitting judges were women and 15 percent were African American or Hispanic. Underlying the argument made by administration officials for a diverse federal judiciary has been the expectation that the presence of women and minorities will ensure that the policy of the courts will reflect the experiences of a diverse population. Yet until now, scholarly studies have offered only limited support for the expectation that judges' race, ethnicity, or gender impacts their decision making on the bench. In Diversity Matters, Susan B. Haire and Laura P. Moyer employ innovative new methods of analysis to offer a fresh examination of the effects of diversity on the many facets of decision making in the federal appellate courts. Drawing on oral histories and data on appellate decisions through 2008, the authors' analyses demonstrate that diversity on the bench affects not only individual judges' choices but also the overall character and quality of judicial deliberation and decisions. Looking forward, the authors anticipate the ways in which these process effects will become more pronounced as a result of the highly diverse Obama appointment cohort.

Awarded the 2013 Birks Book Prize by the Society of Legal Scholars, Women, Judging and the Judiciary expertly examines debates about gender representation in the judiciary and the importance of judicial diversity. Through a theoretical engagement with the concepts of diversity and difference in adjudication, Women, Judging and the Judiciary contends that prevailing images of the judge are enmeshed in notions of sameness and uniformity: images which are so familiar that their grip on our understandings of the judicial role are routinely overlooked.

Intended for use in courses on law and society, as well as courses in women's and gender studies, women and politics, and women and the law, this book explores different questions in different North American and European geographical jurisdictions and courts, demonstrating the value of a gender analysis of courts, judges, law, institutions, organizations, and, ultimately, politics. Gender and Justice argues empirically for both more women and more feminists on the bench, while demonstrating that achieving these two aims are independent projects.

This work is part of the SAGE Reference Series on Leadership and provides undergraduate students with an authoritative reference resource on leadership issues specific to women and gender. It covers historical and contemporary barriers to women's leadership and issues of gender bias and discrimination, but also places a strong focus on positive aspects and opportunities for leadership in various domains. The two-volume set is centered on the 100 most important topics, issues, questions and debates specific to women and gender. By focusing on 100 key topics, more detailed information and depth of discussion is provided than typically found in an encyclopedia entry but not as much jargon, detail or density as a journal article or a research handbook chapter. Key Themes women and public leadership in the American context women's global leadership women as leaders in the business sector the nonprofit and social service sector religion academia public policy advocacy the media sports the arts.

Over the past several years, the fields of Leadership Studies and of Women's Studies have grown tremendously.  This book, which is a series of case studies of women who have headed governments across the globe, will discuss the conditions and situations under which women rose to power and give a brief biography of each woman .   A special chapter on why no U.S. woman has risen to the top,  and a review of the political campaigns of Hillary Clinton, Michele Bachmann and others  will be included. This book will be of interest for courses in women and leadership, global politics and gender studies.

This collection examines the ways in which women have used political rhetoric and political discourse to provide leadership, or assert their right to leadership, at the national level. While over the years women have broken through traditional roles, they are still underrepresented in political leadership. In this text, scholars consider the various factors that continue to restrict political leadership opportunities for women as well as some of the ways in which individual women have strategically sought to enact political power and leadership for themselves. The contributors analyze various case studies of leadership positions at the national level, looking at women who have run, been nominated to run, or appointed to national positions. The interdisciplinary approach lends itself to: rhetoric; political rhetoric; political discourse; leadership studies; women's studies; gender issues; satire; pop culture.