Women and Politics Book Group

Professor Sally J. Kenney, director of the Center on Women and Public Policy, and Mary Rosenthal, DFL Education Foundation, founded the Women and Politics Reading Group in the spring of 2003. Since then, the group meets every other month to discuss books on women and politics aimed at a general audience. We welcome all men and women, students, faculty, and staff, elected officials, community activists, and voracious readers. You may pick and choose among the topics that interest you or come every time.

Our book group was featured in UMNnews!
"Women and politics: Bringing them together in a Humphrey School reading group" (UMNnews, August 20, 2004)

Upcoming Selections

Check back for 2012-2013 selections

Previous Selections

Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes and Black Women in America by Melissa Harris-Perry

Wednesday, May 2, 2012 5-6:30 p.m., Room 215 Humphrey School

2008 Cover

Obama, Clinton, Palin: Making History in Elections 2008 edited by Liette Gidlow

Wednesday, March 21, 2012 5-6:30 p.m., Freeman Commons (Room 205 Humphrey School)

Black Feminist Politics from Kennedy to Obama by Duchess Harris

Wednesday, February 15, 2012 5-6:30 p.m., Macalester College, Davis Court Room in Markim Hall Campus map: http://www.macalester.edu/about/maps/

Author Duchess Harris will join our discussion.

The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR's Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience by Kirstin Downey

Thursday, January 12, 2012 5-6:30 p.m., Freeman Commons (Room 205 Humphrey School)

Pearls, Politics, and Power: How Women Win and Lead by Madeleine Kunin.

Thursday, November 17, 2011 5-6:30 p.m., Freeman Commons (Room 205 Humphrey School)

Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision by Barbara Ransby

Thursday, September 29, 2011 5 - 6:30 p.m., Freeman Commons (Room 205 Humphrey School)

Big Girls Don't Cry: The Election that Changed Everything for American Women by Rebecca Traister

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

A Woman Among Warlords: The Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Who Dared to Raise Her Voice by Malalai Joya

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Notes from the Cracked Ceiling: Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and What It Will Take for a Woman to Win by Anne E. Kornblut

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Parlor Politics: In Which the Ladies of Washington Help Build a City and a Government by Catherine Allgor

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

This Child Will Be Great: Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa's First Woman President by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

30 Ways of Looking at Hillary by Susan Morrison

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Bella Abzug: How One Tough Broad from the Bronx Fought Jim Crow and Joe McCarthy, Pissed Off Jimmy Carter, Battled for the Rights of Women and Workers, Rallied Against War and for the Planet, and Shook Up Politics Along the Way
by Suzanne Braun Levine

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Women and Politics Book Group

Upcoming Selections

Check back for 2012-2013 selections

Previous Selections

Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes and Black Women in America by Melissa Harris-Perry

Obama, Clinton, Palin: Making History in Elections 2008 edited by Liette Gidlow

Black Feminist Politics from Kennedy to Obama by Duchess Harris

The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR's Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience by Kirstin Downey

Pearls, Politics, and Power: How Women Win and Lead by Madeleine Kunin.

Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision by Barbara Ransby

Big Girls Don't Cry: The Election that Changed Everything for American Women by Rebecca Traister

A Woman Among Warlords: The Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Who Dared to Raise Her Voice by Malalai Joya

Notes from the Cracked Ceiling: Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and What It Will Take for a Woman to Win by Anne E. Kornblut

Parlor Politics: In Which the Ladies of Washington Help Build a City and a Government by Catherine Allgor

This Child Will Be Great: Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa's First Woman President by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

30 Ways of Looking at Hillary by Susan Morrison

Bella Abzug: How One Tough Broad from the Bronx Fought Jim Crow and Joe McCarthy, Pissed Off Jimmy Carter, Battled for the Rights of Women and Workers, Rallied Against War and for the Planet, and Shook Up Politics Along the Way
by Suzanne Braun Levine

Pauli Murray: The Autobiography of a Black Activist, Feminist, Lawyer, Priest and Poet
by Pauli Murray

Jeannette Rankin, America's Conscience by Norma Smith

Ida: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching
by Paula Giddings

Women Transforming Congress
by Cindy Simon Rosenthal

Madam Speaker: Nancy Pelosi's Life, Times, and Rise to Power
by Marc Sandalow

Barbara Jordan: American Hero by Mary Beth Rogers

She's No Lady: Politics, Family, and International Feminism by Arvonne Fraser

Saturday's Child: A Memoir by Robin Morgan

The Education of Jane Addams by Victoria Bissell Brown