REVIEW: ‘She Proclaims: Our Declaration of Independence From a Man’s World’ by Jennifer Palmieri
Image courtesy of Grand Central Publishing / Provided by official site.
With the near-election of Hillary Clinton four years ago and the historic candidacy of Sen. Kamala Harris on the Democratic ticket, there are more cracks in the glass ceiling for women in politics, but change is not happening soon enough. Sadly, the United States still has not elected a female president, and that will not change in the next four years, although Harris can make history in the VP role.
One person who knows the important issue of women in politics perhaps better than anyone else is Jennifer Palmieri, author of Dear Madam President and the recently released She Proclaims: Our Declaration of Independence From a Man’s World. She has been working within the political establishment for the past 25 years, serving as director of communications for Clinton’s 2016 presidential run. This experience followed her years as White House communications director for President Barack Obama and other roles for a variety of elected officials.
Her new book, which is a powerful and poignant essay broken into several chapters, can be read in one sitting. It’s so enthralling that the words fly by, mostly because they are eye-opening, candid and instructive. As the collective pronoun in the subtitle suggests, this reviewer is probably not in the target audience, but there’s a lot to learn from these pages no matter how one identifies.
At its heart, She Proclaims is a letter from a feminist to other feminists in these strange, uncertain times. The framing of the piece is a revision of the Declaration of Independence for women and by women; it’s a manifesto that encapsulates Palmieri’s thoughts on politics, patriarchy, equity and representation. Interspersed between these commentaries are historical anecdotes from her life in Washington, D.C., with revealing bits about everyone from the Clinton family to Obama to Elizabeth Edwards.
She Proclaims is perfectly timed for the 100th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote, and Palmieri allows some ink for the early feminists who brought about that monumental change. She mentions these women as a means of respect and reverence, and she makes connections between what happened in 1920 with what happened during the Women’s March after Trump’s inauguration.
Each chapter is smartly grounded in several key principles, including the infinite power of women, the need for women to support other women, and the desire to have women use their collective voices to speak up about what they believe. The actual writing is intended to be inspirational and didactic. One isn’t meant to read She Proclaims and then keep the status quo. Palmieri is addressing women are meant to change things up, tear down the patriarchy and find solace in solidarity.
The writer does an admirable job of presenting a complex problem in U.S. politics by breaking it down into its respective parts. She obviously comes at the issue from a liberal point of view, and she does confront head on the track record of two politicians she previously worked for, former President Bill Clinton and former Sen. John Edwards. But more than being a Democratic pitch, Palmieri’s book advances a democratic cause (note the lowercase “d”). She wants girls and women to see the possibility of becoming change agents and start discarding a system that has left them out for far too long. Palmieri is not after division or partisan politics; she’s outlining a fight for unity and a fight for equity.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
She Proclaims: Our Declaration of Independence From a Man’s World by Jennifer Palmieri. Grand Central Publishing. 272 pages. $25. Click here for more information.
