Paving the Way for Madam President

When the first woman president moves into the White House, she will not only be indebted to the tireless campaign workers, staff, press, family, friends, and, of course, the voters who got her there, but Madam President will also have her sisters to thank for paving the way. Among these women are Margaret Chase Smith, the stalwart Republican senator from Maine who made a bid for the presidency in 1964; Shirley Chisholm, the fiery New York congresswoman who described herself as ‘unbought and unbossed’ in 1972; Patricia Schroeder, the silvery-tongued and brilliant former Colorado congresswoman who briefly ran in 1988; Elizabeth Dole, a North Carolina senator who made an impressive showing as a presidential candidate in 2000; and the articulate one-term Illinois senator, Carol Moseley Braun, who ran in 2004. This book chronicles the lives, communication styles, and presidential bids of these five remarkable women while also addressing the obstacles and opportunities for women as presidential contenders.