Melinda Henneberger's "If They Only Listened to Us: What Women Voters Want Politicians to Hear"

by: Clem Guttata

Tue May 15, 2007 at 21:11:50 PM EDT

There's a new political book out with a West Virginia connection. The author, Melinda Henneberger, had the idea for the book on a hiking trip to West Virginia with her college friends. Curious why even more traditionally Democrat women voted for George Bush in 2004 (than 2000), journalist Henneberger travelled around the country interviewing over 200 woman.

The next West Virginia connection? One chapter, entitled "Together we stand, divide we beg" covers Henneberger's time with (West Virginia Blue reader) Janie Poe, while working for and with unions in Ohio River Valley. [You go girl!!]

Diesel eBooks provides a summary (emphasis mine):

Soon after the 2004 presidential election, veteran reporter Melinda Henneberger set out across the country to listen to women of all ages and occupations express their strong opinions on the major issues of our time. Over eighteen months she spoke in depth and at length with more than two hundred women in twenty states, from Massachusetts to Arizona and Oregon to Texas.

She discovered how unheard women feel, how ignored and disregarded by both major parties and by most politicians. Listening to women all over the nation not only on what are traditionally thought of as "women's issues" but on issues of paramount importance to all Americans Henneberger shines a light on what women voters are thinking and how that translates into how and for whom they vote. The issues that these women focused on were Iraq, abortion, the environment, globalization (and job loss), and corruption (and lack of trust) in the government and the entire electoral process.

Again and again these women of all ages, social classes, and regions returned to the matter of authenticity. And they came back again and again to their commonly held feeling that neither party takes any genuine interest in their actual lives, that politicians across the board seem, as a young waitress in Sacramento put it, "to be talking about people who don't exist." A patient, sensitive, experienced, intelligent listener, Henneberger reports how women feel about the nation's politics and politicians. Her findings will surprise you. Knowing the answers these women give will tell you a great deal about how the next presidential and other elections will be decided.

Listen to an interview on NPR with author Melinda Henneberger.

Update: Here's another interview with the author.