The Politics Women Make

A groundbreaking reinterpretation of American presidential history from the perspective of the women who profoundly shaped the presidency and its policies—even while denied direct access to its power. Presidential history is too often treated as gender-neutral history, even though the presidency and American political life have always been deeply shaped by ideas about gender, family, and women's political influence. In The Politics Women Make, Anne Pluta offers a bold new interpretation of American political development by placing women and gender at the center of presidential history rather than at its margins. Spanning from George Washington to the present day, Pluta demonstrates how women’s interests, activism, and public roles influenced presidential politics long before the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. She reveals how political parties crafted competing visions of masculinity and femininity, how “women’s issues” repeatedly reshaped electoral coalitions, and how women themselves helped define the public image and political priorities of presidential administrations. Drawing on campaign materials, presidential papers, newspapers, party platforms, and writings by activist women, Pluta uncovers the hidden gender dynamics that have shaped American politics across centuries. From Jessie FrÉmont’s influential role in the rise of the Republican Party in the 1850s to Kamala Harris’s “brat summer” in 2024, The Politics Women Make offers a fresh, provocative, and timely account of the presidency that challenges traditional narratives and redefines what counts as political history. At once deeply researched and highly accessible, this groundbreaking study demonstrates that there has never been a truly “neutral” history of the presidency—and that understanding gender is essential to understanding American political power itself.