Acknowledgments
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Acknowledgments As a student in high school, I was always drawn to stories about political leaders who overcame the odds and worked to make a difference for the people. After my grandmother, Anne Kurlantzick, gave me a book about Eleanor Roosevelt, I became increasingly interested in the role of women in national politics. A summer course on the subject sealed my interest in the field and planted the seeds for a project about the policy impact of electing women to Congress. I wish to express my gratitude to those who helped me transform this project from an idea into reality. I am fortunate to have many friends and colleagues who provided intellectual and emotional support throughout the process of writing this book. My thesis advisers at Harvard, Theda Skocpol, Sidney Verba, and John Aldrich, offered guidance and scholarly expertise. Each gen- erously shared their time and research experience, from planning the study design to completion of the project. I would also like to thank Kosuke Imai, Christina Davis, Dan Lipinski, and Karen Rothkin for shar- ing ideas and commenting on the methodological design. I am grate- ful to Sue Thomas, Cindy Simon Rosenthal, and Karen O’Connor for commenting on conference papers and introducing me to the women and politics research community. John Tryneski, Anne Ford, Yvonne Zipter, and the anonymous reviewers for the University of Chicago Press helped me to create a better and more readable manuscript. In addition, this project could not be completed without the members of Congress and their staffs, who provided first-hand insights into the congressional policy-making process. Throughout the writing process, my family, Belle and Theodore Probst, Arlene and Marvin Birnbaum, and Gwen, Ronald, and Jeffrey Swers acted as my personal cheering squad and offered love and support. My grandparents and grandparents-in-law, Anne and David Kurlantzick, xi xii Acknowledgments Ruth and Jesse Isaacs, Evelyn and Ralph Herman, and Lillian and Sam Swers, taught me the value of education, hard work, and family. My deepest thanks go to my husband and best friend, Andrew Swers. As my editor-in-chief, he read every word of every draft. As my computer technician, he insured that I had the latest equipment and fixed every glitch. As my greatest champion and personal knight in shining armor, he believed I could successfully pursue an academic career and made me believe in myself. I dedicate this book to him..