Stepping Up to Power: The Political Journey of American Women

The sweeping changes in political opportunities for women over the past 40 years can be mirrored in the life of Harriett Woods, the former president of the National Women's Political Caucus. Her book Stepping Up to Power combines memoir and history in considering just how far women have come: 80 years ago women won the right to vote; today, more than 40 percent of Bill Clinton's appointments as president were women, including six cabinet members and a Supreme Court justice. Woods personally experienced the difficulties encountered by women who wanted a career outside the home when she tried to get a newspaper job in the early 1950s after graduating from college. Paper after paper told her that women didn't belong in the newsroom, but she persevered until she was finally hired by the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. Like most women of her time, Woods ventured into politics with involvement in civic organizations working to solve local problems. "Each of us began with a passionate desire to impact some issue and somehow ended up with political careers," writes Woods, who got herself elected to the Missouri State Senate and as lieutenant governor of Missouri, but failed in bids for the U.S. Senate in 1982 and 1986. Woods writes with passion about the struggle for women to raise money, get elected, and be taken seriously once they reach office. Stepping Up to Power reminds us of the progress we've made--and how far we have yet to go. --Linda Killian