To no one's surprise, there's no shortage of coverage opinions about Hillary Clinton's new book
What Happened. Jennifer Senior of
The New York Times calls the book "a candid and blackly funny account of her mood in the direct aftermath of losing to Donald J. Trump." Clinton told
Refinery29 that she "[is] pulling back the curtain for people [to show that] being a woman in public life is like being on a high wire with no net."
Responding to many critics' suggestions that Clinton disappear from public life, Jennifer Wright at
Harper's Bazaar points out that as the first female major party candidate for president in America's 241-year history, "it might be interesting to have her perspective on the unique challenges she faced. Knowing how she endured them will be helpful to other women following in her footsteps (of whom there will be many)." Stassa Edwards of
Jezebel writes: "For all of the acrimony that's preceded the book, and the more that's sure to follow,
What Happened lays claim to one overlooked piece of history: it joins the 'literature of defeat' as the first written by a woman, the first to directly address the role of sexism in American politics."
The New York Times reporter Amy Chozick, who covered Clinton's campaigns for president in 2008 and 2016, discussed "What Happened" on
The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Chozick is working on her own memoir on her experience of covering Hillary Clinton for a decade.
The folks at
FiveThirtyEight discuss whether Clinton is right about the reasons she lost.
Another book on the 2016 election came out last week, Katy Tur's campaign memoir,
Unbelievable: My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History. Terri Gross interviewed Tur on
NPR's Fresh Air
; listen to Tur talk about the time Trump caused her to fear for her safety. Carlos Lozada of
The Washington Post writes that what elevates the book "beyond one more pedestrian campaign memoir is Tur's skill at capturing the constant indignities of campaign reporting while female, including the worst indignity of all: enduring the fixation of Trump himself."
A Mixed Bag for Women in the Administration
State, the digital magazine from CNN Politics, profiles UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, arguably one of the most prominent and effective Cabinet members, as well as one who has thus far avoided scandals plaguing other members of the administration. And for the first time in any administration, women are in command of its top two public-facing roles - press secretary and communications director - as reported by
NBC News. On the other hand, the president just nominated 42 people for US attorney, 41 of whom are men,
CNN reports.
Latinas in the Spotlight
As Hispanic Heritage Month kicks off, a look at Latinas in public leadership:
Huffington Post profiles Veronica Escobar, who could be the first Latina elected to Congress from Texas - a surprising milestone, given that the state is 40 percent Latino. According to the
LA Times, former Rep. Loretta Sanchez, a Democrat who represented Orange County in California for 20 years in Congress, is an executive producer on a political drama,
Accidental Candidate, which follows a small-town mom who gets thrust into the spotlight after a confrontation with a politician at a town hall meeting and impulsively decides to run for Congress (which will sound familiar to those who followed Sanchez's early political career.)
Sports and Politics: Lots in Common
Looks like women in the worlds or sports and politics have an awful lot in common. Women sportscasters confront some of the same complaints about their voices that women candidates and officeholders face "Shrill." "Grating." "Like listening to my ex nag me." "Sounds like my mom yelling at me." Sounds familiar??
The New York Times describes this as the "Safest Bet in Sports: Men Complaining About a Female Announcer's Voice." And apparently women athletes face different kinds of questions than men according to
The New York Times, "Sexism and Shopping: Female Players Get Most of the Odd Questions at the U.S. Open." Worlds colliding!
Symbols, But Not Saviors
Having women in prominent positions can mask the reality of women's low representation, as covered
in this piece about German Chancellor Angela Merkel. While Merkel has proved a role model for many and has vowed to appoint a gender-balanced cabinet if re-elected, the number of women in the German Parliament is already certain to drop in the upcoming election.
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