CultureWatch Reviews: Gillibrand's Off the Sidelines and Warren's A Fighting Change Merge Into One Compelling Narrative.

CultureWatch Reviews: Gillibrand's Off the Sidelines and Warren's A Fighting Change Merge Into One Compelling Narrative

One pleasure of A Fighting Chance and Off the Sidelines lies in the telling of each woman's path to the United States Senate. The lesson of each narrative underscores that it is possible to be elected to high office using different political strategies. Warren came to elective politics late in her career. For several decades she held professorial positions at increasingly prestigious law schools. In these years she developed an international reputation as an expert in bankruptcy law, distinguishing her approach with unique sociological data that explained why people filed for bankruptcy or, in Warren’s words "why they were broke."

Warren writes of reluctantly leaving her Ivory Tower in the mid-1990s to advise President Clinton's National Bankruptcy Review Commission. This work slowly pulls her into the vortex of national politics as she fights members of Congress who want to restrict the right of Americans to file for bankruptcy. Critically, Warren comes to understand the bully pulpit in her grasp as a national policy adviser after one appearance on the "Dr. Phil" show where she explained contemporary family income issues to an audience of six million people. In A Fighting Chance Warren explains these economic issues to readers in many pages of endnotes, something that Gillibrand's book does not provide.

During President Obama's first term in office Warren became the key player in the fight to establish a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau but was blocked by financial institution lobbying when she sought to become its first director. Ironically, this defeat left her free to think about running for elective office and becoming an even more influential public figure. In 2012 she reclaimed Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat for the Democrats, raising nearly forty million campaign dollars. She was the first woman elected as a Massachusetts senator. Her lengthy account of the campaign makes good reading.

Kirsten Gillibrand traveled a more traditional road to the Senate. After law school she worked at a prominent New York City law firm. A year shy of her thirtieth birthday Gillibrand read Hillary Clinton's speech for the 1995 World Conference on Women (Beijing). She writes that Clinton's words — "women's rights are human rights" — pressed her to "alter the course of my life and get involved in politics." Gillibrand begins by joining the NYC chapter of the Women's Leadership Forum (which supports Democratic nominees for president), and setting a support network in place. This includes cultivating Clinton as a mentor. She explored the possibility of running for the House of Representatives in 2004 but was told that she should wait, develop a larger network and greater public recognition. She does run successfully in 2006 — winning 53% of the vote — with the blessing of both Clintons who made campaign appearances on her behalf. Two years later she was re-elected, in her largely Republican district, polling 62% of votes. Shortly after her re-election New York Governor David Paterson appointed Gillibrand to fill the Senate seat left vacant when President Obama appointed Hillary Clinton his Secretary of State. Reprising her House victories, Gillibrand has handily won re-election in the Senate, most recently in 2012.

In Off the Sidelines Gillibrand uses public service and the importance of women's participation in politics as her central theme. Gillibrand lays out her current policy positions but digs less deeply into the issues than does Warren. Both senators offer choice anecdotes about being a woman professional and a woman in politics. Gillibrand stuns the reader as she relates how a male senator walked up to her after she had succeeded in losing weight gained in pregnancy and said "Don't lose too much weight now. I like my girls chubby." Pause. He, and others, are the men voting on anti-discrimination legislation.

Reading A Fighting Chance and Off the Sidelines together gives satisfying insight into the quite different but complementary careers of two women who stand as powerful role models for young women, and men, who are thinking about a life in public service or advocacy. Gillibrand pleads for involvement; Warren argues that it is time to balance the interests of corporate America against members of the working and middle classes. Warren’s story demonstrates how one person can make a difference and, in doing so, her story and Gillibrand’s message of getting off the sidelines merge into one compelling narrative.

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CultureWatch Reviews: Gillibrand's Off the Sidelines and Warren's A Fighting Change Merge Into One Compelling Narrative

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