Caitlin Donohue - She Represents: 44 Women Who Are Changing Politics . . . and the World

I remember with awful clarity the day I learned about sexism in politics. When I was a culture section intern at the dearly departed alt weekly San Francisco Bay Guardian , the first newspaper that ever hired me to write something, I got stuck covering a local Democratic election night party. Up until the night in question, I had mainly been reporting on sustainable food issues, but a politics reporter was sick and the editors needed a body capable of asking questions and taking notes. Slightly out of my element, I gave it my best shot. I gamely cornered the male head of the board of supervisors and started peppering him with questions. Two queries in, we were interrupted by a local blogger, who I did not recognize but who was a notoriously foul fixture of San Francisco progressive politics. This blogger clapped the politician on the back and greeted him with a friendly obscenity. Then, Is this your escort? he inquired, jerking his head in my direction and effectively reducing me to my apparent sexual availability. The head of the board of supervisors muttered that I was a journalist and disappeared in a cloud of small-talk smoke, leaving me alone with the disagreeable media man. This, at a gathering of progressive leaders, in San Francisco, ostensibly one of the countrys most progressive cities! I felt as though I would never want to report on politics again.

But now I am older and wiser, and I know this disagreeable blogger said what he said because for a long time, women were seen as an accompaniment or aberration in politics. It didnt matter that Cleopatra and Nefertiti ruled Egypt back in ancient timesthroughout much of modern US history, if we were in a room where decisions were made, we were probably arm candy for the men who were there to call the shots.

I am happy to say that times are slowly changing. In the United States, we are electing women at record rates. In the 2018 midterm elections, 589 women ran for the House of Representatives, Senate, and the governors office. And 125 of them won their elections, including 45 women of color. In over half the countries of the world, quotas dictate by law how many women political parties must nominate for election. In 2019 women made up 24 percent of the worlds parliaments, as opposed to just 11 percent in 1995. With representation comes new norms. Every year there are fewer places where chauvinist pigs may frolic freely and make women feel bad just for being in the room.

Not only is it definitely a good thing for women that we have more opportunities for political careers, but it is a good thing for everyone. Women make up more than half the population and are often entrusted with societys hardest jobs, including taking care of their families. Just like other traditionally underprivileged groups of people, we need a voice in the way things are runif only to keep our political system truly representative of the people it governs.

This book is a nonexhaustive whos who of the current political generation that is influencing and shaping politicsalthough in some moments well take breaks to talk about great women political leaders from history. Some are heroines, and some are villains. Depending on whom you ask, most are both. But all of their stories teach us about the segments of society they represent, both by biography and by their actions in voting and policy decisions.

Mostly, the women in the main profiles of this book are currently in office, with some key exceptions. Hillary Clinton (page 22) and Sarah Palin (page 148) havent held elected posts in years, but I thought their influence on todays politics was too remarkable to leave them out. Former Republican congressional representative Mia Loves (page 116) exit from electoral politics (for now) may be able to teach us about the current state of her party, and Stacey Abramss (page 10) shocking gubernatorial defeat helps demonstrate the state of US voting rights for people of color. Wendy Daviss (page 44) story shows the difficultly of fighting for reproductive rights in much of the US, and despite her 2018 resignation, United Nations representative Nikki Haley (page 80) provided leadership within the Trump administration too unique to be ignored. Brazilian city council member Marielle Franco (page 64) is no longer with us, likely assassinated by her own governments paramilitary forces. Luckily, her political legacy thrives in Brazil and beyond.

The women in this book are mainly from the United States, because thats where this book is being published. But many of them are from other countries, and Im especially excited to share these international stories with you, dear readers. Heres the thing: the US is not exactly a role model when it comes to having women in political office. We havent even elected a woman president, and Iceland accomplished that back in 1980! (Heres to you, Vigds Finnbogadttir [page 74].) And when you grow up in the United States, you often dont learn much in school about the way politics work in the rest of the world. Those omissions limit our ability to think about what is politically possible and make us really easy to dupe about our countrys relationship with other nationsespecially on important matters such as immigration, faraway wars in foreign lands, and international trade.