Michele L. Swers Associate Professor of Government at Georgetown University   Keynote Address for the Conference on   Women, Gender, and Conservative Parties in the 21st Century October 9, 4:30 p.m. Senior Classroom in Tinkham Veale University Center

Professor Swers is an expert on Congress, Congressional elections, and Women and Politics. Her most recent book, Women in the Club: Gender and Policy Making in the Senate (University of Chicago Press 2013), examines the impact of gender on Senators’ policy activities in the areas of women’s issues, national security, and judicial nominations. The book focuses on party differences to demonstrate how party reputations for issue ownership interact with perceptions of women’s policy expertise to create opportunities and obstacles for women Senators, and analyzes women’s activities as members of partisan teams leveraging their gender to promote party messages to groups of women voters and to advance their own policy goals.

A question-and-answer session will follow Professor Swers lecture, which is open to the CWRU community and the general public.

The conference is sponsored by the CWRU McBride Lecture Fund, the Kathryn Peacock Eaken Memorial Fund, The Flora Stone Mather Center for Women, and the Women’s and Gender Studies Program