Why They Stay
The Sex Scandals, the Deals, and the Real Agendas of Nine Political Wives
Book
Hardback
272 pages
978-1-4930-1002-8 (ISBN)
Description
In May 2013, when Huma Abedin stood alongside her husband, disgraced Congressman Anthony Weiner, as he announced his unlikely candidacy for mayor of New York City, the public watched transfixed. They were both aghast and perplexed. They had seen it all before, but this one seemed to break the mold. Abedin was a highly coveted political operative and Weiner was a laughingstock (he would prove to be even more so when more details came out this past fall.) And yet his wife was still there. We thought back on Clinton and Spitzer and countless others and again couldn't help but wonder: What makes women stay in a political marriage after a highly public infidelity? Author Anne Michaud believes that part of the answer is that politics is soaked in traditional values to such an extent that the political wives-even though they are accomplished, well connected and conceivably financially independent-choose to fight for the marriage more forcefully than one might expect in the general population. Additionally, the coverage of political wives is, almost without exception, blind to the weight they place on family happiness over their own as individuals.
Their reasons for remaining married is within a family context-it isn't only the marriage that matters, it's the whole family. They see their marriage as the basis for a larger web of relationships. Why They Stay will look through lenses of marital tradition and at nine philandering politicians (including FDR, JFK, Clinton, Eliot Spitzer and Weiner), whose wives have stayed with them-for years or forever. If we can begin to understand this group of women, we may arrive at some universal laws that govern or concern all women.
Their reasons for remaining married is within a family context-it isn't only the marriage that matters, it's the whole family. They see their marriage as the basis for a larger web of relationships. Why They Stay will look through lenses of marital tradition and at nine philandering politicians (including FDR, JFK, Clinton, Eliot Spitzer and Weiner), whose wives have stayed with them-for years or forever. If we can begin to understand this group of women, we may arrive at some universal laws that govern or concern all women.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Guilford
United States
Publishing group
Rowman & Littlefield
Product notice
With dust jacket
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-4930-1002-8 (9781493010028)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Anne Michaud is a veteran journalist who has covered politics in New York City, one of the political capitals of the world. Today, Anne writes a weekly op-ed column for Newsday, a 400,000-circulation daily newspaper covering the affluent New York City suburbs with daily online visits of 1.4 million. Her columns are syndicated around the country, and in 2013 she was named "Columnist of the Year" by the New York State Associated Press Association. Anne covered Bill Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign, Anthony Weiner's 2005 mayoral bid and Eliot Spitzer's rise and fall as New York's governor from 2006 to 2008. She knows many aides, deputies, political advisers and close allies of these political figures, as well as consultants and public relations experts who travel in these circles. Anne's work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, Newsweek, BusinessWeek.com, Parents, MomsRising.org and more. She has won 25 writing and reporting awards, including Columnist of the Year for 2012 from the New York State Associated Press Association. A sample of her work can be found at http://www.annemichaud.com. Anne has appeared on numerous television and radio programs, including WNYC's The Brian Lehrer Show, NY1's Reporters' Roundtable, Fox 5 News WNYW, the City University of New York Forum, and Working New York, a TV talk show produced by the New York State AFL-CIO. Anne has a B.A. in Economics from Trinity College (Conn.) and an M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University. She lives in Huntington, New York, with her husband and their two teenage daughters.