See Jane Win by Caitlin Moscatello

SEE JANE WIN by Caitlin Moscatello deals with candidates, their campaigns, and the victories for women in American politics between the Spring of 2017 and now. Moscatello, a journalist who writes frequently about gender and reproductive rights and politics, chose to profile four women: Abigail Spanberger (running for Congress in Virginia); Catalina Cruz (a Columbian-born Dreamer running for state assembly in New York); Anna Eskamani (running for state office in Florida); and London Lamar (seeking a seat in Tennessee’s state house).  In general, this is not a “how-to” book, but rather a (sometimes surprisingly dry) chronicle of events with some limited analysis that is based primarily on a string of interviews. Roughly ten percent of this text is devoted to notes and index, although it would have been helpful if Moscatello had also added contact information for the many organizations (IGNITE, Running Start, Onward Together, Emerge America, Run for Something, Latino Victory, etc.) that she mentions. I honestly thought that the presentation at our school by one of the organizers of the Woman’s March in Chicago was more impactful for students. However, SEE JANE WIN received a starred review from Kirkus and Booklist recommended it for teens, saying, “Politically engaged teens of all genders will be drawn to these inspirational women's stories and the ups and downs of running for office.”

The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee

THE DOWNSTAIRS GIRL by Stacey Lee (Under a Painted Sky and Outrun the Moon) is a work of historical fiction in which readers definitely will experience 1890 Atlanta with all of its gender, race, and social class biases. The main character is Jo Kuan, a seventeen-year-old Chinese orphan who lives with her guardian, Old Gin, in a basement hideout formerly on the underground railroad. She wants to be a milliner and has obvious skills until she is abruptly dismissed for making some of the white patrons “uncomfortable.” Next, it is on to being a lady’s maid for a rather spoiled young woman at an estate where Old Gin helps to care for the horses. In an effort to save a local newspaper, she also starts writing an advice column, signing her letters as Miss Sweetie and cleverly tackling questions related to beauty, social mores and "newfangled machinery" like bicycles. Even though THE DOWNSTAIRS GIRL is set in a time and place with which our students will have little affinity, I think they will readily relate to Jo’s spirit – she is optimistic, resourceful and daring – a real “saucebox” with an independent streak. And the cover is beautiful and eye catching!  

THE DOWNSTAIRS GIRL received multiple starred reviews (Booklist, Bulletin for the Center of Children’s Books, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly and School Library Journal) – expect this title to appear on award lists, too.

Alpha Girls by Julian Guthrie

ALPHA GIRLS by Julian Guthrie profiles four women who succeeded in the male dominated culture of Silicon Valley, specifically in venture capital, “an industry that is not well known but has enormous influence.”  Guthrie shares events - both professional and personal - at various times in these women’s lives.  She begins in the 1980s when they were studying engineering or business at elite universities like the University of Virginia, Stanford, Purdue, Harvard, and Brown. The women’s backgrounds are different: Theresia Gouw’s family is from Jakarta, Indonesia, Magdalena Yeşil grew up in Turkey and is fluent in four languages, Sonja Hoel Perkins had worked briefly at the London Stock Exchange and later joins Menlo Ventures, and MJ Elmore is from the Midwest but stays in Menlo Park, California after getting a job at institutional Venture Partners (IVP) also on Sand Hill Road. The next section of the book deals with the mid to late 1990s and the opportunities that technology and the Internet offered. Guthrie injects a great deal of “name-dropping” and life style description (e.g., annual Hawaiian getaway for women of venture capital).  She also stresses how over time, and for various reasons, each woman struggles with belonging. The text continues through 2018 and Guthrie makes additional observations in her author’s note, saying, “research shows that companies with more diversity, particularly with more women in leadership, offer higher returns on capital and greater innovation.” 

Guthrie defines an Alpha Girl as “a woman of any age who refuses to give up on her dreams.” As a reader, it is interesting to observe the inter-generational differences and the author’s “surprise” at how hard it was for these women to share. Guthrie and the even younger women who are just starting out today do face discrimination, but thanks to the many conversations and changes that have occurred, their more recent experiences are certainly different - and hopefully less lonely - from those faced by the “pioneers” profiled in ALPHA GIRLS. It is fascinating to look at the changes that have occurred and to continue the discussions about future change: to view more about “The Women Upstarts Who Took on Silicon Valley's Male Culture and Made the Deals of a Lifetime” see the videos and interviews which are available on Julian Guthrie’s web site. I will be recommending this text (and Melinda Gates’ The Moment of Lift) as a possible independent read for our business classes, although its main audience will be older. ALPHA GIRLS contains some photographs and a helpful index, but no bibliography.