Women and Politics: Paths to Power and Political Influence - Softcover

Julie Dolan is Associate Professor of Political Science at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. She earned her PhD from American University. Her scholarly interests include American government and politics, women and politics, and bureaucratic politics. She has received a number of prestigious awards for her scholarship and publishes in a variety of journals including Women & Politics, Public Administration Review, PS: Political Science and Politics, the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. Her most recent research focuses on issues of political representation in the bureaucracy.

Melissa M. Deckman is the Louis L. Goldstein Professor of Public Affairs and Chair of the Political Science Department at Washington College. She earned her PhD from American University. Her areas of specialty include religion and politics, women and politics, and American political behavior, and she publishes in a variety of journals, including Journal of Women, Politics, and Public Policy, PS: Political Science and Politics, and American Politics Research, which most recently published her work (coauthored with John McTague) on the impact of the “War on Women” on the 2012 presidential election. Her forthcoming book, Mama Grizzlies and Politics, examines the role of women in the Tea Party in America.

Michele L. Swers is Professor of American Government in the Department of Government at Georgetown University. She earned her PhD from Harvard University. Her research and teaching interests encompass Congress, congressional elections, and women and politics. She has written two books on women and representation in Congress: The Difference Women Make: The Policy Impact of Women in Congress and Women in the Club: Gender and Policy Making in the Senate.

Women and Politics delivers the best and most comprehensive text on women’s access to and participation in the political process in the US. It’s sweeping in its breadth, covering historical as well as contemporary examples, local school board and city council politics to the Presidency and Supreme Court, and with illustrations of [both] conservative and progressive women. It uses theory to explore contradictions, and anecdotes to make the controversies alive. (Catherine Connolly, University of Wyoming)

As a scholar of women and politics, it is refreshing to see such a well-researched, balanced, and comprehensive take on the role women have and will continue to have in the American political system. I highly recommend it for students of women and politics. (Jennie Sweet-Cushman, Chatham University)

This is an outstanding text. It offers an engaging look at the ways in which women participate in the political process and in government and synthesizes the latest scholarship and data on women in politics in a way that is accessible for students. (Judithanne Scourfield McLauchlan, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg)