US POLITICAL PROCESS

US political process

Women in political process

Perhaps the most prevalent definition of political leadership is offered by James MacGregor Burns. In Burns's opinion, political leadership is defined by the power a leader exercises through his or her relationships. The people with whom the political leader interacts, and how he or she interacts with those people, become essential in defining the strengths and weaknesses of any political leader. (Boyd 2003)

Admittedly, Burns's definition is a nebulous one, but political leaders play an identifiable role in society. They include elected officials from mayors to senators, and non-elected officials such as interest group officers and party activists; they are often stereotyped as out-of-touch, middle-aged, white men. Until recently, cultural mores perpetuated this stereotype by holding women subservient to men. Women were unwelcome in the boardroom and the legislature alike, and were thus unable to build the necessary relationships to accrue the power to lead in American society. Only since the 1960s have women political leaders been able to create social change from within American governmental institutions. (Constantine 2009)

Just as a generation of women became politically active during the antislavery movement, the U.S. civil rights movement of the 1960s created a new generation of women political leaders. Although these women still were not regarded as equal participants in American life, the women of the 1960s had greater liberties than their predecessors. For example, access to more reliable contraceptives, including birth control pills, freed these women from the fear and consequences of unplanned pregnancies as well as many of the childcare responsibilities that women growing up in earlier years had experienced. (Boyd 2003)

Spurred on by their greater freedom, as well as other events, including the publication of Betty Friedan's Feminine Mystique, the release of President John F. Kennedy's Commission on the Status of Women's report American ...