Through the Cracked Ceiling

By Ariana Pekary, producer

The historic nature of the 2008 election, where Barack Hussein Obama became the first black President, in many ways overshadowed the relevance of women in politics that year.  Anne Kornblut’s book Notes from the Cracked Ceiling: Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and What It Will Take for a Woman to Win helps bring perspective and behind-the-scenes insight to what unraveled that year.  To use her words, that election, for women, was “a severe letdown, with damaging consequences.  It revived old stereotypes, divided the women’s movement, drove apart mothers and daughters, and set back the cause of equality in the political sphere for decades.”  To her, it wasn’t the “Year of the Woman” as her very own Washington Post had coined it.

That being said, it seemed like a subject worth discussing at length.  That’s why we called in the other guests for the hour: Geraldine Ferraro (I hate to be to be so obvious but she does bring a historical perspective unlike anyone else – plus, she was one of the mothers driven from her daughters), Susan Davis of the Wall Street Journal (for an alternate view from the campaign trail), and Bonnie Morris (I needed to hear more than just “who said what” during the last campaign – I wanted historical and feminist thoughts and details on the subject).

This was a slightly different format for us – let us know what you think about the subject and the discussion.

For more information on Anne Kornblut’s book, go here: http://www.annekornblut.com/.

Bonnie Morris’s book:  Revenge of the Women’s Studies Professor.