Women on the Hill

In 1991, Anita Hill testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee to accuse Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment. The outrage among feminists that greeted Thomas's subsequent confirmation as a Supreme Court justice swept women into high political office in unprecedented numbers. Women on the Hill addresses the politics of gender in the aftermath of Anita Hill's allegations. Of equal importance, it presents four of the women on the front lines of the gender battles: Cynthia McKinney (Rep.-Georgia), Louise Slaughter (Rep.-New York), Patty Murray (Sen.-Washington), and Pat Schroeder (Rep.-Colorado). In Women on the Hill, Clara Bingham, a former Newsweek reporter, tells the story of what happened as all four women sought to change nothing less than the culture of Congress and the agenda of a nation. She observes that this generation of congresswomen views itself as a group of settlers rather than pioneers, free to reframe the public debate. As a result, the congresswomen have experimented with political styles - meeting with varying degrees of success - and Bingham chronicles the political showdowns, gains, and reverses that these women have encountered.