In the Running; The New Woman Candidate

xxi, [1], 280, [2] pages. Includes Acknowledgments, Preface, and Contributing Journalists. Also includes Reference Notes, and Index. Also contains The Advance Guard; The Right Image; Private Life/Public World; Outsiders; Laying the Groundwork; Getting and Spending Resources; Women's Political Movements; and Conclusion: The Beginning of A Difference. Ruth Mandel (née Blumenstock; August 29, 1938 - April 11, 2020), usually published as Ruth B. Mandel, was an American political scientist. After obtaining her Ph.D., Mandel began teaching English at Rutgers University. When the Eagleton Institute of Politics started a Center for American Women and Politics 1971, Mandel volunteered as a co-founding member of the center, and she was quickly promoted to the position of co-Director and then Director of the center, a position which she held from 1973 to 1994. In 1995 she became the Director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics, which she remained until she stepped down in 2019. Before that she spent more than 20 years as the Director of the Eagleton Institute's Center for American Women and Politics. Mandel was also an official at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Mandel's work was cited, or she was interviewed, on topics relating to women and politics in news outlets like The Washington Post, Bloomberg News, The Atlantic, and Politico. Mandel was awarded both an honorary Doctor of Public Service from Chatham College and an honorary Doctor of Public Administration from Georgian Court University. Of all the advances made by American women during the 1970s, one of the most significant was the increase in women nominated for and winning political office. This groundbreaking book examines women's campaign experiences during that decade, and how those experiences differed from from those of the men. It charts the progress made and still to be made. Drawing on lively first-person accounts of women who have campaigned for all levels of office across across the country, the author reveals the difficulties of creating a public image when the "right" image has always been male, shows how women's private lives are given greater scrutiny than than those of their male opponents, and explains why women have a harder time asking for and securing all-important campaign dollars. Mandel's research also largely focused on women in American electoral politics. In 1981 she published the book In the Running: The New Woman Candidate. In the early 1970s, less than 5% of all elected officials in the United States were women, but by 1980 the number had grown to 10%. Mandel used both candidate interviews and observational research methods to document the experiences of women candidates as the proportion of elected officials who were women more than doubled.[5][6] Obituaries for Mandel credited In the running with being "the first book-length account of women's experiences as candidates for political office". Derived from a Kirkus review: A smooth compendium about women-as-political-candidates, derived from reports on 1976 races throughout the country. In the book's first two major sections, we're reminded why women are running for office more and what obstacles a woman still has to face: projecting an acceptable image; public scrutiny of her private life, and public encroachments on it; exclusion from established business, professional, and political groups. Unassailable "findings," perked up by the occasional excerpted report (like black Kansas City an Joanne Collins' reaction to being touted as "our Barbara Jordan"). Instructive are the sections on laying the groundwork for a successful campaign--which most fully utilizes those '76 reports (see especially Texan Ann Richards' method of targeting votes, Minnesotan Arlene Letho's gain by going into business)--and on marshalling resources (where the difficulties for women in raising money are spelled out). The last of the major sections describes the activities of women's political support groups (chief.…