The Book of Gutsy Women. Hilary Rodham Clinton & Chelsea Clinton. 2019.

Hilary

Growing up, I knew hardly any women who worked outside the home. So I looked to my mother, my teachers and the pages of Life magazine for inspiration. After learning that Amelia Earhart kept a scrapbook with newspaper articles about successful women in who seemed to be redefining what was possible. 

Chelsea 

The book is the continuation of a conversation the two of us have been having since I was little. For me, too, my mother was was a hero; so we’re my grandmothers. But I grew up in a world very different from theirs. Most of close friends’ mothers worked as nurses, doctors, teachers, professors and in business. And women were going into space and breaking records here on early.

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Ensuring the rights and opportunities of women and girls still remains a big piece of unfinished business. While there’s a lot of work to do, we know that, throughout history and around the globe, women have overcome the toughest resistance imaginable to win fictions that have made progress possible for all of us. That is the achievement of each of the women in this book. 

So how did they do it? The answers are as unique as the women themselves. A civil rights activist, an LGBTQ trailblazer and a swimmer who kept pushing forward no matter what. Writers who named something no one had dared talk about before. A historian who used her wit to open doors that were once closed, and an environmentalist who understood the power of role-modeling. Nearly every single one of these women was fiercely optimistic- they had faith that their actions could make a difference. And they were right. 

To us, they are all gutsy women - leaders with the courage to stand ho to the status quo, ask hard questions and get the job done. So, in the moments when the long haul seems awfully long, we hope you will draw strength from these stories, we do. Because, if history shows one thing, it’s that the world needs gusty women.