Big Girls Don T Cry Book Review

vRebecca Traister has written about women in politics, media, and entertainment for Salon, The New York Times, Elle, The Washington Post, and other national publications. Her book, Big Girls Don’t Cry, offers insight into the 2008 “election that changed everything for American women,” and argues that gender, race, and the media greatly impact the ways that women are received by the public. Traister also argues that the “political wives” who supported their husbands during the 2008 election were similar to Clinton and were able to live their lives as powerful political women partially because she had done so previously. By conducting interviews and research, and by detailing first hand accounts, Traister attempts to explain the 2008 election and the ways that the women involved in the election made it so different. …show more content…
However, the 2008 election also introduced us to many strong women who made history in different ways. For instance, gender played a prominent role in the 2008 election as it became the first Presidential election in which a woman—Hillary Clinton—won a major American party’s presidential primary. 2008 also marked the first time that that a woman—Sarah Palin—appeared on a Republican presidential ticket, and the second time overall that a woman appeared on a major party’s presidential ticket. Additionally, the contributions of the wives of candidates Barack Obama, John McCain, and John Edwards greatly influenced the results of the