Whichever side of the political aisle you lean toward, it can seem like the only people in power are white men. But the balance is beginning to tip. Women are being elected at record rates and government is beginning to more accurately reflect the people it represents. Read these profiles of forty-four women in leadership from both sides of the US political spectrum and from around the world to learn about their paths to power, their achievements and missteps, and their lasting legacies. This book will show you what the road to power looks like for women in modern times. By showing up and representing women in the decisions that make or break a country, these leaders pave the way for future female politicians.
Nineteen-year-old Na has always lived in the shadow of her younger brother, Bao-bao, her parents' cherished son. Years ago, Na's parents left her in the countryside and went to work in the city, bringing Bao-bao along and committing everything to his education. But when Bao-bao dies suddenly, Na realizes how little she knew him. Did he really kill himself because of a low score on China's all-important college entrance exam? Na learns that Bao-bao had many secrets and that his death may not be what it seems. Na's parents expect her to quit her vocational school and go to work, forcing Na to confront traditional expectations for and pressures on young women.
We are internees, not prisoners. Here's the truth: I am now a non-alien, stripped of my constitutional rights. I am a prisoner in a concentration camp in my own country. I sleep on a canvas cot under which is a suitcase with my life's belongings: a change of clothes, underwear, a notebook and pencil. Why?" In 1941 Kiyo Sato and her eight younger siblings lived with their parents on a small farm near Sacramento, California, where they grew strawberries, nuts, and other crops. Kiyo had started college the year before when she was eighteen, and her eldest brother, Seiji, would soon join the US Army. The younger children attended school and worked on the farm after class and on Saturday. The Satos were an ordinary American family. Until they weren't. On December 7, 1941, Japan bombed the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The next day, US president Franklin Roosevelt declared war on Japan and the United States officially entered World War II. Soon after, in February and March 1942, Roosevelt signed two executive orders which paved the way for the military to round up all Japanese Americans living on the West Coast and incarcerate them in isolated internment camps for the duration of the war. Kiyo and her family were among the nearly 120,000 internees.
Theodosia Burr, daughter of Vice President Aaron Burr, came of age in New York City when the New Nation was growing up. She attended the inauguration of President George Washington in 1789, was at her father's side on the campaign trail and at his inauguration in 1801, attended presidential addresses to Congress, and hosted the most prominent politicians and thinkers of her time. The Burrs' ideas about educating young women were revolutionary. Theodosia was an experiment in the equal treatment of women—regardless of social status—in education, family life, society, and the law. The family believed that women had an important role to play in the New Nation, and Theodosia was fully prepared. Based on research at libraries and archives, and from the rich body of letters Theodosia and her family left behind, this historical narrative introduces readers to a most unusual girl who pursued a radical new path for women.
