It was a rainy and warm July evening in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 2016 when Nichola Gutgold and I met for the first time. They say that some things are just meant to happen, and this chance meeting at the Democratic National Convention on the evening of Hillary Clinton’s acceptance of the Democratic nomination for president was one of those things. There was a long evening ahead of us...

Several people helped me get this book into your hands, and I am grateful. Brittany Avent of Arizona State University was an enthusiastic research assistant, who brought younger generation insight into the project as did my former Penn State student, Fatima Alba, who shot and styled the photo of the political buttons on the front cover. Special thanks to Nicolette Amstutz at Lexington Books whom I...

It was July 2016, at the Democratic National Convention, in the uppermost section of seats in the massive Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia. A mother and father and their two young girls—maybe five and six years old—were waiting. Waiting for the woman who could become the next president of the United States to take the stage and share her vision for the country. The electricity in the...

Tulsi Gabbard, born in American Samoa and raised in Hawaii, embodies the spirit of aloha. More than just a greeting, aloha is the spirit of life. Many people understand aloha to mean simply “hello” or “goodbye,” but for Gabbard, the term signifies a spirit characterized by compassion, self-sacrifice, and respect. Her deep commitment to personal faith and service stems from...

Kirsten Gillibrand seemed destined for a nontraditional path all her life. She had strong female role models in both her maternal grandmother and her mother, and her own perfectionist nature set her on a path of private school and vast international travel before she was even out of high school. Her idea of what professional life might look like for her was broadened by an Ivy League college...

Kamala Harris recounts her upbringing often: the daughter of Shyamala Gopalan Harris, a single mother and...

As the returns for the New Hampshire primary in February came in, Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar could see that her nascent...

We can all remember a moment when we wanted to share something—in a classroom, at a dinner table, or maybe in a boardroom—but instead of being...

“Only outrageous truth can beat outrageous lies,” Marianne Williamson declared after raising more than $3 million to keep her presidential campaign going. “What guides my life is what guides the life of most...

In September 2020, when feminist icon and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, it seemed superficial when President Donald Trump nominated another woman—Amy Coney Barrett, her ideological opposite—to replace her. Presumably she was chosen because, well, Barrett is a woman, too. A similar “replacement” occurred in 1991 when Clarence Thomas was chosen to fill the...

“When women run, women win.” Nothing proved that premise more than the midterm elections of 2018, when I (and 35 other women running for Congress) won our Democratic primaries and then went on to win in the general election held on November 8, 2018. In addition, one Republican woman was newly elected. In January of 2019, these first-time members became part of a record-setting ninety...

Nichola D. Gutgold is professor of communication arts and sciences at Penn State Lehigh Valley. She is inspired to amplify the voices of women who are often unheard.

Communicating Gender features original research examining the role gender plays in communication. It encompasses a wide variety of approaches and methodologies to explore theoretically relevant topics pertaining to the interrelation of gender and communication both in the United States and worldwide. This series examines gender issues broadly, ranging from masculine hegemony and gender...