Book Reviewed: When Women Win: EMILYs List and the Rise of Women in American Politics, by Ellen R. Malcolm, Craig Unger

How a women’s group like EMILY’s List has changed the way America works

This is an inside story from one of the principal founders of EMILY’s List, Ellen R. Malcolm that chronicles the beginnings and the raise of a powerful women’s organization. Formed in 1985 as a political action committee (PAC) to provide “pro-choice” female Democratic candidates with "seed" money to run for state and federal offices, EMILY's List has become more than a women's PAC. Over the past 30 years, Ellen Malcolm and a cadre of liberal feminist activists have transformed this movement into a political powerhouse. EMILY's List stands for "Early Money Is like Yeast" (raises dough). It is a political cliché based on a simple marketing strategy that receiving donations early in the race leads to more donors later. This group sends contributions to the campaigns of pro-choice Democratic women running in targeted races around the country. The 1985 meeting in the home of Ellen Malcolm included very powerful democratic women like Barbara Boxer, Ann Richards, Anne Wexler, and Donna Shalala.

The book is essentially a historical document that describes the growth of EMILY’s List as a political organization that defends the reproductive rights of women. The book includes several interviews with leading women of the Democratic Party but does not detail its “candidate selection process” or the way its endorsement process works.

In a demonstration of its political muscle, Emily’s group backed Congresswoman Barbara Mikulski of Maryland in her bid to win the senate race in 1986. Barbara Mikulski became the first Democratic woman elected to the Senate from MD, and currently she is a senior senator and a ranking minority member. In 2012, 80% of the candidates endorsed by EMILY's List in the general election were victorious including senators; Claire McCaskill (MO), Elizabeth Warren (MA), Tammy Baldwin (WI), Mazie Hirono (HI), Amy Klobuchar (MN), Dianne Feinstein (CA) and Maggie Hassan in the NH Gubernatorial race. EMILY's List has endorsed Hillary Clinton in the 2016 U.S. presidential election as it did in the 2008 bid.

In 2010, Professor Jamie Pamelia Pimlott of Niagara University published her work chronicling the founding of Emily’s list under the title, “Women and the Democratic Party: The Evolution of EMILY's List. The current book by the groups’ founder Ellen Malcolm makes another interesting reading. I recommend this to anyone interested in Emily’s List or women’s movement in American politics. “When women win” is an insightful look at how women are transforming government, politics, and the workforce, and how they are using that power shift to effect change in American lives.