Running in High Heels
Before there was Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann and other factually-challenged candidates, there was Emily Csendes, a local State Senate contender with little experience and a lot of money campaigning for office in “Running in High Heels.”
With her politically tone-deaf campaign manager, Stephen, glued to her hip at all times, Emily embarks on a journey alternately humorous and exasperating in which she acts out the belief that showing up and being pretty just may be enough to obtain office. Along the way, she pays lip service to real issues and no mind to women, the one demographic that might save her campaign. In the end, she receives her comeuppance but does she really learn?
Intercut with Emily’s story are interviews and commentary by notable women from the right and left of America’s political spectrum, ranging from Phyllis Schlafly, conservative stalwart, to Ellie Smeal of the Feminist Majority to Rosalind Wiseman, whose work on the psychological warfare and unwritten social rules with which girls (and women) deal was the basis for the movie “Mean Girls”. Through their debates they illustrate the various needs for a healthy democracy to not only have women participate but to lead.
Interview subjects include:
* Myrna Blyth, author of Spin Sisters and former Editor-in-Chief, Ladies Home Journal
* Dr. Heidi Hartmann, Founder of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research
* Sherrye Henry, author of the Deep Divide, aide to Congresswoman Louise Slaughter
* Nancy Pfotenhauer, Fmr. President, Independent Womens Forum & Republican Strategist
* Phyllis Schlafly, conservative activist and author
* Eleanor Smeal, womens activist and President of the Feminist Majority Foundation
* Betty Spence, President of the National Association of Female Executives (NAFE)
* Rosalind Wiseman, author of Queen Bees and Wannabees
See “Running in High Heels” and find out how women can be the revolution which they seek.