Political Woman

Commissioned by the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), Kirkpatrick's book is the first major study of women in American public life.  Kirkpatrick interviewed women state legislators attending the historic first national gathering of elected women, the Conference for Women State Legislators, convened by CAWP in May 1972. Funded with a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the conference focused on the backgrounds, attitudes and experiences of women elected to state legislatures. The book details the struggles political women faced as they ran their campaigns, coped with the prejudices of constituents and colleagues, and

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State Legislature

The 2020 Election is Nearly One Year Away: Here’s What We Learned From 2018.

Early in the 2018 campaign, Debbie Walsh, Director of the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), and I issued a note of caution about the gender progress we would see as a result of the midterm elections. Our motto was “under-promise and over-deliver,” noting that gender parity for women in American politics was not going to be achieved in any single...

What We’re Watching: Second Time’s the Charm?

At the end of the 2018 midterm cycle, our friends and collaborators at the Barbara Lee Family Foundation published a new research memo, Relaunch: Resilience and Rebuilding for Women Candidates After an Electoral Loss , that looked at voter perceptions of losing candidates and how those candidates might make a successful electoral appeal moving forward. This...

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