Strangers in the Senate: Politics and the New Revolution of Women in America
About this book
Politics is no longer only a man's game. For the first time in history women are finally significant players in the political game.Called by some the "Women's Iwo Jima," the photograph on the cover of this book shows then-Congresswoman Barbara Boxer leading the march up the Senate steps that initiated the greatest women's revolution since the 1960s. Pressure from Boxer and other women leaders forced the Anita Hill sexual harassment hearings into being and catapulted women into the forefront of American politics. Strangers in the Senate is the inside story of that phenomenal revolution, told by Senator Barbara Boxer, one of its principal warriors.Senator Boxer reveals how Anita Hill's allegations tapped into the sexual harassment of American women, including female members of Congress - and how Americans began voting for women in numbers never before equalled. She depicts a momentous change in voters' attitudes - a transformation that more than tripled the number of women in the Senate in the space of a single year.With characteristic warmth, humor and intelligence, Boxer provides illuminating insights into her life as a woman in politics, letting the reader share in her many struggles and victories. She describes the discouragement she felt on the campaign trail, as people slammed doors in her face, telling her to stay home and raise her children, or underestimated her talents because she was a woman. But she also relates the deep pride she takes in knowing that she can make a difference in issues from sexual harassment to freedom of choice to gun control. Her legislation in her decade-long career as Representative from California, and now Senator, has left an indelible imprint on American society.In Strangers in the Senate, Boxer writes forthrightly of her personal experiences - of her own painful case of sexual harassment by a college professor, of the friend of her son's who was killed as a result of lax gun-control policies - and, as a mother, of her intense concern for education.Boxer includes stories of many of her colleagues who were also touched by the issues that they legislate - women such as Pat Schroeder and Barbara Mikulski, whom Boxer counts among her mentors and friends. Their insightful and often humorous testimonies provide a fascinating account of the lives of women in the highest legislative bodies in America.These are put into historical perspective in an informative chapter on the history of women in government and in Hillary Rodham Clinton's foreword on the political activism of First Ladies.Women are not better than men, Boxer believes - only different; and their different perspectives are crucial for a relevant democracy.Strangers in the Senate is an inspiring story which is unfolding every day all across America as more and more women participate in a truly exciting revolution.