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Author, lawyer, political commentator to speak on gender and power

By Amy Gage
April 24, 2003

Susan Estrich
Estrich
At the dawn of the 21st century, women in America are richer, more educated and more powerful than they've ever been.

So why, asks author, attorney and political commentator Susan Estrich, do they account for a mere 3 percent of the nation's top executives? Why are only three Fortune 500 companies run by women?

Estrich will answer those questions and more in a free public lecture -- "Sex and Power: The Status of Women in America" -- at St. Olaf College on Tuesday, April 29, at 8 p.m. in the Pause in Buntrock Commons.

"Twenty-five years ago," says Estrich, a professor of law and political science at the University of Southern California and author of the book Sex & Power, "the women who were 'firsts' were supposed to have blazed a trail. Today, fewer and fewer women are choosing to take that path."

Now, many women are opting for the so-called mommy track, slowing down their careers so they also have time to raise a family or have a more fulfilling life outside of work.

That prompts more questions from Estrich: "Are women today ambitious enough, individually and collectively?" "When a woman choose the mommy track, is it a victory for freedom of choice or a setback that underscores the limits of her either/or options?"

A woman of "firsts" herself, Estrich was the first woman president of the Harvard Law Review and the first woman to head a national presidential campaign. In 1988, she ran the presidential campaign of Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis and earlier served as a senior adviser to Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro in their bid for the White House.

Estrich writes the "Portia" column for American Lawyer Media and a nationally syndicated column that appears in the Washington Post, Boston Herald, Houston Chronicle and elsewhere.

She earned her bachelor's degree with highest honors in 1974 from Wellesley College and received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Radcliffe Graduate Alumni Association in 1989.

Her books include Getting Away with Murder: How Politics Is Destroying the Criminal Justice System and Real Rape, both published by Harvard University Press.

Her latest book, Sex & Power, examines how power is divided between the genders in the United States and why women seem unable to break the "glass ceiling" in business, politics and other fields.

Estrich's talk is sponsored by the student-run Political Awareness Committee at St. Olaf College.

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.