We Will Be Heard Women's Struggles for Political Power in the United States

by Freeman, Jo

• ISBN13: 9780742556072
• ISBN10: 0742556077
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-02-25
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Summary

In We Will Be Heard, noted political scientist Jo Freeman chronicles the struggles of women in the United States for political power. Most of their stories are little-known, but Freeman's compelling portrait of women working for change reminds us that women have never been silent in the political affairs of the nation. From J. Ellen Foster's address to the 1892 Republican Convention to Nancy Pelosi's 2007 election as the first female Speaker of the House, women have worked to influence politics at every level. Well before most could vote, women campaigned for candidates and lobbied to shape public policy. Men welcomed their work, but not their ideas. Even with equal suffrage women faced many barriers to full political participation. The fifteen case studies of women's struggles for political influence in this book provide the historical context for today's political events. Starting with an overview of when and why political women have been studied, the three sections of the book look at different ways in which women have broken barriers, practiced politics, and promoted public policy. These engaging and accessible stories are even more important in today's political climate, when a woman can finally be a front-runner in a presidential race. Readers of all political stripes will enjoy the history behind modern politics in this story of women struggling to make their voices heard.

Author Biography

Jo Freeman is author of two prize-winning books: A Room at a Time: How Women Entered Party Politics and The Politics of Women's Liberation. She is the coeditor of Waves of Protest and editor of Social Movements of the Sixties and Seventies and five editions of Women: A Feminist Perspective

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments	p. ix
Prologue: The Search for Political Woman	p. 1
Practicing Politics
The Iowa Origins of Organized Republican Women	p. 21
"One Man, One Vote; One Woman, One Throat": Women in New York City Politics, 1890-1910	p. 25
The Rise of Political Woman in the Election of 1912	p. 49
All the Way for the ERA: Winning and Losing in Virginia	p. 77
Breaking Barriers
The Women Who Ran for President	p. 85
Ruth Bryan Owen: Florida's First Congresswoman	p. 107
Marion Martin of Maine: A Mother of Republican Women	p. 111
Gender Gaps in Presidential Elections	p. 115
Feminism and Antifeminism in the Republican and Democratic Parties	p. 121
Gender Representation in the Democratic and Republican Parties	p. 133
Promoting Policy
"Equality" vs. "Protection": Setting the Agenda after Suffrage	p. 159
How "Sex" Got into Title VII: Persistent Opportunism as a Maker of Public Policy	p. 171
Congressional Passage of the Equal Rights Amendment	p. 191
Comparable Worth	p. 211
Epilogue: The Long Road to Madame Speaker	p. 225
Index	p. 249
About the Author	p. 263
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