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Women for President: Media Bias in Eight Campaigns, Erika Falk (University of Illinois Press, 2008, $19.95 paperback)
In this study of media coverage of eight American women’s presidential campaigns, Erika Falk takes up the timely topic of how media bias affects women in politics. Ranging from Victoria Woodhull’s 1872 campaign to Carol Moseley Braun’s 2004 bid for the Democratic nomination, Falk’s research uses content analysis to give statistical support to some popular anecdotal claims: that women candidates receive less press coverage than their male competitors, that coverage of women focuses disproportionately on feminized topics (such as dress and family), and that media language often suggests that women are either unfit to hold office or unelectable in the face of American prejudice. Falk confronts that prejudice head-on with her claim that the press, not the polls, perpetuates the idea that women are unfit for political life. Noting the low numbers of women who run for elected office, Falk smartly points toward the danger that media bias against women might discourage women from public participation.
To those following the 2008 primaries, Falk’s conclusions will be nothing new; but the data she has collected buttresses oft-made observations about the role of the media in framing political contests. Her short but comprehensive volume presents solid evidence for actual media biases, and it might be of use to instructors who hope to discuss gender bias in politics without explicitly referencing the current election. Although its commitment to gender analysis sometimes precludes an in-depth discussion of how other factors (such as race) might affect election coverage, the volume presents certain evidence that sexism continues to affect politics. In pointing out how the media portrays women as “not candidates but female candidates,” Falk gestures toward a time when they might be both.
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Women and Leadership: The State of Play and Strategies for Change, Barbara Kellerman and Deborah L. Rhode, Eds. (Jossey-Bass, 2007, $39.95 hardcover)
Kellerman and Rhode’s new anthology represents a formidable contribution to the literature on gender and leadership. As the editors note in their introductory essay, women represent over half of college graduates but under 25 percent of full professors, and similar disparities pervade most sectors of civic and economic participation, including business, government, and law. Responding to this inequity, the editors convene the works of skilled scholars who push beyond the question “Do women lead differently?” to examine the underlying societal biases that link femininity to certain styles of leadership (and thus limit women’s chances to lead). The resulting volume delivers on the title’s promise to review the current status of women in leadership and suggest potential avenues for change.
With its emphasis on structural inequity, this book distinguishes itself from popular self-help manuals that instruct women on how to shatter the glass ceiling. Its contents are nonetheless relevant to women contemplating their own opportunities to lead--and their opportunities to challenge the cultural assumptions and structural boundaries surrounding women’s leadership. The essays encompass a range of approaches from prominent leaders and scholars (including Anita Hill, Sandra Day O’Connor, and Nannerl Keohane), all pointing toward the value of increasing women’s opportunities for leadership and the dangers of relying on gender stereotypes to do so. The volume’s authors argue eloquently for an expanded conception of leadership that decouples gender stereotypes from leadership styles, creating cultures that are both more productive and more welcoming for all.
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Bella Abzug: How One Tough Broad from the Bronx Fought Jim Crow and Joe McCarthy, Pissed Off Jimmy Carter, Battled for the Rights of Women and Workers, Rallied Against War and for the Planet, and Shook Up Politics Along the Way, Suzanne Braun Levine and Mary Thom (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2007, $25.00 hardcover)
Suzanne Braun Levine and Mary Thom have assembled a compelling biographical collage with this oral history of political pioneer Bella Abzug’s life. Although their own voices are absent from the text, the editors have strategically interlaced carefully selected quotes that reconstruct Bella’s evolution from the daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants in the Bronx, to law school student, to activist and organizer, to congresswoman and cofounder of the National Women’s Political Caucus. By interspersing quotes by Bella with quotes about Bella, Levine and Thom place their subject in conversation with a wide range of personalities who both admire and critique her gregarious personality, approach, and accomplishments. Key chronologies and timelines provide context for the conversation, while sixteen pages of photographs help illustrate the intrinsic tensions of Bella’s personal and private lives.
Bella Abzug not only describes how a young woman developed into a political icon, but also demystifies the process of political activism. The book explores how one woman accomplished change both privately and publicly over the course a lifetime, and it could be a potent classroom tool for mobilizing the next generation of activists and politicians. In recounting ups and downs, failures and successes, the text describes Bella’s unique journey towards self-actualization and offers convincing evidence that one does not always have to choose between working from inside or outside the system. As this volume illustrates, Bella’s extraordinary commitment to the cause of justice, balanced with flexibility, creativity, and cunning, is both astounding and inspiring.
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