Literary, Political and Professional Foremothers

Throughout this text, the author frequently invokes the names of powerful women who either she admires or whose life stories teach valuable lessons about the ways in which powerful women are viewed and received by society. The author draws from a diverse array of political figure across the aisle, from the leader of the United Kingdom’s Conservative Party leader, Theresa May, to Hillary Rodham Clinton, a high-profile Democrat in the United States. The author does not give much attention to either woman’s political message or stance on policy issues. However, both women’s reception in the public eye, as married women and mothers in positions of power, concerns and incenses the author. The author notes that society expected both May and Rodham Clinton, as it does all women, to take a back seat to their husbands. Their refusal to do so, the...