Feldt looks at women's complex relationship with power

Nationally renowned activist and author Gloria Feldt, a professor of practice in the School of Social Transformation, was interviewed by reporter Dennis Lambert on KJZZ-FM radio’s “Morning Edition” program on November 1 about her new book, “No Excuses: Nine Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power.”

Asked by Lambert about what Feldt hoped to accomplish with this book, she said the impetus came while working on an article in 2008 about why women do and don’t run for office – and she had to come to terms with the reasons why the answer to that question was so often “don’t.”

“At this point, the doors have all been opened at least once by somebody, and we have the legal barriers down,” Feldt told Lambert. “There’s still discrimination, there are still certainly issues that women face in the culture, there’s no question of that. ... There are still reasons why women aren’t reaching parity, but there are no excuses anymore. It’s up to us now as women to lead ourselves through those doors.”

A practical activist, Feldt doesn’t merely examine women’s ambivalent relationship with power and the reasons women aren’t reaching parity. In the book she draws on her years of experience and interviews with many women to offer nine tools to help women develop a better relationship with power. Feldt gives women advice about how to create the future of their choice – how to be intentional with their lives by finding ways to use their gifts and focus their passions. 

A teen mom from rural Texas whose passion for reproductive justice led her to a 30-year career with Planned Parenthood, Feldt served as president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America from 1996 to 2005. At Arizona State University she teaches the women and gender studies course “Women, Power and Leadership” in the School of Social Transformation, an academic unit of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Like her most recent book, the course explores women’s complex relationship with power.

The “Morning Edition” interview as well as Lambert’s extended interview with Feldt are available at the KJZZ-FM website: http://kjzz.org/news/arizona/archives/201010/ME_NoExcuses