Informed by conversations with elected female leaders, former three-term Vermont Governor and Ambassador to Switzerland Madeleine M. Kunin asks questions such as ‘What difference do women make?’ ‘What is the worst and best part of politics?’ ‘What inspires women to run, and how do they prepare for public life?’ How will the money be raised, how will they protect their families’?’ ‘How will criticism be dealt with and how will they work with the ‘good old boys’?’

Kunin’s core message is that America needs an infusion of new leadership to better address the major problems of our time. To see how women can achieve that goal, she combines her personal experience in politics, lessons of women’s movements, stories of young women today who have new ideas about their role in society, and interviews with a wide range of women in positions of power. She interviews Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, analyzes her campaign, and addresses the question: “Is the country ready?” Other interviewed include U.S. Representatives Loretta Sanchez, Linda Sanchez, Deborah Pryce, and Tammy Baldwin, and U.S. Senators Susan Collins, Amy Klobuchar, and Carol Moseley Braun, and Governors Kathleen Sibelius and Janet Napolitano.

Women will be inspired to lead by seeing people like Nancy Pelosi wielding the gavel, and seeing themselves reflected in the portraits in statehouses, courthouses, corporate and university boardrooms, and the White House. Pearls, Politics, and Power will help ensure that this inspiration is not soured or deflected, but channeled into successful candidacies by America’s leaders of tomorrow.

Madeleine M. Kunin was the first woman governor of Vermont, and served as the Deputy Secretary of Education and Ambassador to Switzerland under President Bill Clinton. She is the author of Living a Political Life and is currently a Marsh Scholar Professor-at-Large at the University of Vermont. Kunin lectures on history and women's studies. She also serves as president of the board of the Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC), a Vermont-based nongovernmental organization that she founded in 1991. She lives in Burlington, Vermont.