This collection profiles women in American politics who have demonstrated true leadership over the past 150 years—though this leadership has not always been recognized as such. These women have defied stereotypical caricatures and modeled effective ways to lead, even when they have not enjoyed formal access to voting or party politics, lost campaigns, or suffered scrutiny and harassment as public figures. Many of them have championed people and causes that their male counterparts have neglected, lending their lived experiences as women to fight for political action for underrepresented groups, and showing time and again that the personal really is political. Here we assess their political careers, not in terms of wins and losses, but rather in their ability to negotiate identity politics and shift conventional rules about how politicians lead.
This collection profiles such varied women as Jeannette Rankin, Shirley Chrisholm, Nancy Pelosi, Kamala Harris, Stacy Abrams, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, among others. Whether they have recast gendered meanings around political ambition, broadened access to the political process, privileged principles over party loyalty, or prioritized issues over incumbency, each woman profiled here has wisdom to impart to new generations of American women who aspire to run for office or be involved in American politics.
