When Women Win
Emily's List and the Rise of Women in American Politics
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A behind-the-scenes look at the organization that transformed Congress—and became a force for female empowerment.
In 1985, aware of the near-total absence of women in Congress, Ellen Malcolm launched EMILY’s List, a powerhouse political organization that seeks to ignite change by getting women elected to office. The rest is history: Since then, EMILY’s List has helped elect 23 women senators, 12 governors, and 116 Democratic women to the House.
When Women Win delivers stories of some of the toughest political contests of the past three decades, including the historic victory of Barbara Mikulski as the first Democratic woman elected to the Senate in her own right and Elizabeth Warren’s dramatic Senate win. It is both a page-turning political drama and an important look at the effects of women’s engagement in politics.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Malcolm, the founder of EMILY's List, delivers a lively, fast-paced history of the influential political action committee that helps elect pro-choice, Democratic women. Drawing on interviews with Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Elizabeth Warren, and others, she highlights the organization's impact on elections over the past 30 years, most notably by giving selected candidates donations early in their campaigns (EMILY is an acronym for "early money is like yeast"). The book covers EMILY's List's evolution, since its 1985 founding, from a fund-raising organization to a "multi-pronged, full-service political operation" with three million members that has helped elect 110 Democratic women to the House and 19 to the Senate, including Warren. Malcolm also emphasizes the dramatic effect of Anita Hill's testimony on the female electorate and the importance of women voters to the Democratic Party. The book shows that EMILY's List's biggest contribution may be to make women in Congress seem so familiar that voters are now far more likely to judge women on their records and character than on their gender.
