Celebrating Women in Politics: 12 must-read political books by women
As we celebrate today’s historic moment - the first woman, first Black and South Asian American woman to become Vice President in the US, we wanted to honor the many women who have ‘continued fight for their fundamental right to vote and be heard’, Kamala Harris, Nov 7th 2020.
The 19th Amendment, ratified a century ago on Aug. 18, 1920, is often hailed for granting American women the right to vote. Yet voting remained inaccessible for yet Black, Indigenous, Asian and Latin American women for several decades to follow. In fact, women sharing their political voices and ideas in public and print, deeply offended many people.
To recognize Vice President Kamala Harris’s feat is to recognize all that made her election to Vice Presidency possible….all the women and Black women in particular that led the way, made themselves heard, and shared their political talents and minds leading up to and throughout 2020, including their political writing.
Here are our top twelve notable political books written by or about women:
Our Time is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America: Stacey Abrams chronicles a chilling account of how the right to vote and the principle of democracy have been and continue to be under attack. It is more than a book of voter suppression, it is a book of clarity and inspiration.
The Purpose of Power: How we come together when we fall apart: Alicia Garza. This is the story of one woman’s lessons through years of bringing people together to create change. Most of all, it is a new paradigm for change for a new generation of change makers, from the mind and heart behind one of the most important movements of our time
A Seat at the Table: Kelly Dittmar, Kira Sanbonmatsu, and Susan J. Carroll have interviewed over three-quarters of the women serving in the 114th Congress (2015-2017). This book looks at women’s legislative priorities and behavior, details the ways in which women experience service within a male-dominated institution, and highlights why it matters that women sit in the nation’s federal legislative chambers.
Power and Feminist Agency in Capitalism: To instigate change, we need to draw on collective power, but appealing to a particular type of subject, “women,” will always be exclusionary. Claudia Leeb proposes that power structures that create political subjects are never all-powerful. She rejects the idea of political autonomy and shows that there is always a moment in which subjects can contest the power relations that define them.
Performing Representation: Shirin M. Rai and Carole Spary’s comprehensive analysis of women in the Indian parliament explores the possibilities and limits of parliamentary democracy and the participation of women in its institutional performances.
Gender Parity and Multicultural Feminism: Around the world, we see a participatory turn in the quest of gender equality, illustrated by the implementation of gender quotas in national legislatures to promote women’s role as decision-makers. Ruth Rubio-Marin and Will Kymlicka explore in their book, the connection between gender parity and multicultural feminism.
Hood Feminism: Notes from the women that the movement forgot: Mikki Kendall takes aim at the legitimacy of the modern feminist movement, arguing that it has chronically failed to address the needs of all but a few women. Drawing on her own experiences with hunger, violence, and hypersexualization, along with incisive commentary on politics, pop culture, the stigma of mental health, and more, Hood Feminism delivers an irrefutable indictment of a movement in flux.
Historic Firsts: Hilary Clinton was not the first women to run for presidency; Shirley Chisholm ran in 1972, but was unsuccessful. Even with her loss, it was a significant campaign that rallied American votes across various racial, ethnic and gender groups. Can “historic firsts” bring formerly politically inactive people into the electoral process, making it both relevant and meaningful? Evelyn M. Simien explores this idea.
Women, Power and Politics: As women continue to gain importance in politics as voters, candidates, and officeholders, so does our importance on understanding how gender shapes political power and distribution of resources within our society. Lori Cox Han and Caroline Heldman focus on the role of women as active participants in government and the public policies that affect women in their daily lives.
This is what America Looks Like: my Journey From Refugee to Congresswoman: Ilhan Omar one of the most inspiring American life stories in U.S politics today. Aged twelve, penniless, speaking only Somali and having missed out on years of schooling, Ilhan rolled up her sleeves, determined to find her American dream. Faced with the many challenges of being a Muslim refugee, she questioned stereotypes and built bridges with her classmates and in her community. In under two decades she became a grassroots organizer, graduated from college and was elected to congress with a record-breaking turnout by the people of Minnesota
Women as Foreign Policy Leaders: Sylvia Bashevkin provides critical insight on women’s leadership roles in contemporary foreign policy, while highlighting the diverse and transformative contributions that Jeane Kirkpatrick, Madeleine Albright, Condoleeza Rice, and Hillary Rodham Clinton made during a series of Republican and Democratic administrations.
Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America: Ijeoma Oluo In this ambitious survey of the last century of American history, Oluo adeptly historicizes the brutal effects of white male supremacy on women, people of color, the disenfranchised and white men. Through research, interviews, and the powerful, personal writing for which she is celebrated, Oluo investigates the backstory of America's growth, from immigrant migration to our national ethos around ingenuity, from the shaping of economic policy to the protection of sociopolitical movements that fortify male power.
Inspired by Ibram X. Kendi and Oxford University Press