Speaking of International Women's Day...

I just found out about this:

Breaking the Political Glass Ceiling: Women and Congressional Elections
by Barbara Palmer and Dennis Simon

Book Launch Party and Happy Hour
Thursday, April 6, 6 - 8 pm
eyebar
1716 "eye" st. NW, one block from both the Farrgut North and Farragut West Metro stations.
Everyone is welcome. Please feel free to pass this invitation to your friends.
Books will be available for purchase and signing.


Politics and Prose Reading and Signing
Saturday, April 8, 1:00 pm
5015 Connecticut Avenue, N.W.
Everyone is welcome. Please feel free to pass this invitation to your friends.


Breaking the Political Glass Ceiling provides a path breaking analysis of the obstacles and opportunities for greater representation of women in Congress. Based on the stories of women candidates and the most comprehensive data on women and congressional elections from 1956 to 2004, Barbara Palmer and Dennis Simon explore how incumbency and entrenched attitudes toward female candidates affect women’s decisions to run for the House and the Senate. The authors also examine the districts where female candidates have been the most successful. They identify the factors which have contributed to their success and how those factors allow more women to breakthrough the glass ceiling they have encountered far too often and for far too long.

“For anybody wanting to run for office or wondering why more women aren’t elected to Congress, Breaking the Political Glass Ceiling explains the past, describes the present, and forecasts the future. The authors identify eighteen congressional districts out of 435 that are ‘woman-friendly,’ compared to 153 unlikely to welcome women candidates through 2010, a reality that perpetuates the ‘achingly slow pace’ of women taking their rightful place in Congress.”
—Eleanor Clift, contributing editor, Newsweek

"It's about time. Palmer and Simon masterfully scour modern history for the smoking gun behind why women continue to be hindered in their quest for integration into Congress."
—Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL)