Theyre wonderful son, cooper, kelley and kelley, pam and nicole, plaintiffs in the case more than 30, you ought to matter. Your relationships matter. Your children matter. I felt like part of we the people. [inaudible conversations] hi, everyone. Thank you so much for coming out this evening. Before he gets started, a few housekeeping notes. If you could take the time now to silence or cell phones, that would be great. You dont have to turn it off. You can follow kramer books on facebook and twitter and its agreement signed for email newsletter if you havent already. A newly redesigned website kramer. Com. We would love for you to visit. You can see all the great events without going on. Melissa is here to talk about her new book, tea party by men which explores the women creating and reading the Tea Party Movement and the greater significance of womens involvement in the tea party and talks about our understanding of female Political Leadership in the future of women in the american right which is fascinating and im so glad melissa is here to share that with us. As a professor of Public Affairs at Washington College where she also chairs the Political Science department. Shes the next attention to religion in american politics in the author four books and we are so glad to have her with us today. Please join me in welcoming Melissa Deckman to kramer books. [applause] thank you to kramer books for having me here tonight. Thank you all for coming. A lot of familiar faces. So many happy to see my friends and porters here. Thank you to my house and sean to support and encouragement for critical to the project. In thank you for anemia parking space because it took us only half an hour to do tonight. I thought what i would do before i talked about the major findings is why i decided to write a book about Tea Party Women. When the tea party first burst onto the political scene in 2009, i was struck by the role women were playing is visible leaders. Women like amy kramer, cofounders of arguably the largest new Tea Party Group to emerge and make it the Tea Party Patriots. Amy beth martin continues to meet that organization. I was also his up by a litany of conservative organizations that emerged in the wake of the tea party. Social media which is more conservative women. I was reading stories in this paper is about womens charting the Tea Party Organizations at the grassroots level. Of course in the tea party first initially emerged in 2009, arguably the largest supporters politically speaking for women. People like Michele Bachmann, former congresswoman from minnesota also started the Tea Party Caucus. And of course the original mama grizzly herself, sarah a lead author linked with the tea party. In my own research i studied for a long time in putting the christian right. In earlier rightwing movements, women have been a part of these moments, but are really more behind the scenes rather than frontend dinner. Excuse me. There have been notable exceptions. The schlafly is the best exception to that. For the shapley is best known for having sat era in the 1970s. One of the women i interviewed for this book is to have an office in the very first thing this woman sighed as Phyllis Schlafly was tea party before there was tea party. Shes absolutely right. If you look at the writing of Phyllis Schlafly today. While conservative women have been active in politics, they havent confronted and are in a way outside the tea party. That is upon to develop. Why are so many women out front. I wanted to know the significance for american politics. Many of you are here, probably follow american politics closely. Since 1980 roughly, women are significantly more like a bad man to vote for democratic candidates. More likely to identify as democrats. What i wanted to determine with nationally speaking are we beginning to see a shift in americas women towards politics. Were they becoming more moderate as opposed to that flaming and that is the two biggest questions than addressing them about. Tonight i thought what i would do is focus on maybe three major points from the book and then open it up to questions that you might have about the project. The first thing i discuss is why when enjoying the tea party and also pay particular attention to the rhetoric a lot of these women use that his gender and nature. One of the fascinating things that cant is the extent to which Tea Party Women were arguing that conservative policies were good for women and families. Then i talk about why it is women have emerged as Leaders Within the tea party ways that they had not earlier conservative movements and in direct contrast to their leadership opportunities in the Republican Partys and last but not least with the rise of women as leaders means for the gender gap in american politics. Before i begin, i want to talk about the methods that i use. I use qualitative and quantitative method to address the question. In 2012 and 2013 i had a sabbatical from Washington College. I spent the year hanging out at tea party events, going to rallies, soaking and poking us may dissertation chair simon introduced me to a book in graduate school that talks about the method of hanging out in learning about political and heirs. I do a lot of observation. During that year i interviewed 29th at this in the tea party for women involved in different conservative organizations about why they decided to become involved in the tea party. I also from a quantitative perspective utilize data from a wonderful Organization Called pr i had. Bobby jones and dan cox, the cofounders with a nonprofit, Nonpartisan Organization dedicated to understanding religion and values and culture in american politics and life. They have wonderful data it really asks consistently a question about whether or not people identified himself as hard of a tea party. I used the question throughout the book and isolating women who consider them elves can compare them to other american women in terms of their politics. So lets talk about the first point. Why is it that women feel compelled to be part of the tea party. The women that i interviewed became active in the tea party for a lot of the same reasons the men became active in the movement. They were fed up with what someone would call connie s. They emerged in the collapse of 2008. They thought government was getting today. They didnt like the response of bailing out wall street. They didnt like the stimulus package. Their vision of what American Government should look like is far more limited in scope covered by some fewer taxes, but also is grounded in a more conservative interpretation of the constitution. Many i spoke with talked about their anger at Establishment Republicans is something we here thought about, but initially when i was doing interviews a few years ago, they thought republicans in washington starting with george w. Bush were republicans in name only. Thus prompted many women to get involved. Ill give you a case in point. One of the women i interviewed for the book is kelley karen berger, a millennial from seattle who started her own blog to the campaign of 2000 that called liberty belle. She also is credited with holding the very First Tea Party in the United States in february 2 2009 before the tea party moniker came to define that movement. She was holding a protest in native seattle to protest the american recovery and reinvestment act which is more commonly known as stimulus package. She gained a lot of National Attention from rightwing media. Michelle malkin has been a longtime conservative columnist, she sat like a been a solidarity with protesters there. Kelley really sort of told me the reason for getting involved at the tea party was because of the financial crisis from the 2008 campaign of Barack Obamas proposals for increasing the size of government. I personally solid candidate obama was saying and not he was a total radical and i couldnt understand why it would not it was a moderate. Not that i like mccain, but this guy is totally far out in left field. What are you thinking . So she would soon after go on to work fulltime for Tea Party Patriots. I heard similar responses that i interviewed us while including diana remark on a tea Party Activist from pennsylvania. She was later hired by a Tea Party Patriot. She got involved because my husband and i were really annoyed with bush in the bailout and mr. Obama comes along with more bailout. I saw that the First Tea Party february 27, 2009 right after rick santellis rant. That essay. Thats what i want to do. I went online and sign up to be the if you recall the supporter from cnbc was on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange protesting essentially, was angry with the obama administrations proposal to help homeowners a link within their payment. From the floor of the exchange, he called for chicago citizens to hold their own tea party. He said basically the obama decision to help delinquent homeowners promote bad behavior arguing Government Policies should reward people who can carry the water instead of drink the water. The rallying cry went i wrote. I wanted to mention it because the santelli rant, a lot of went specifically mentioned that as being vital to why they wanted to become more involved in the tea party. It wasnt just brought economic concerns. What i found interesting when i was reading blogs is for a lot of these women, their gender became an important rationale. Many of them talked about how their roles as mothers galvanize them to become part of the tea party. Another example from whitney neil who at the time of our interview with a National Grassroots coordinator for freedom works, which is a Koch Brothers organization that predates the tea party but a primary libertarian organization. This is what she had to say. For me personally i think about my side and i want him personally responsible, independent. I want him to challenge himself. I do want to live in a world where the government has told him how to be or i can solve your problems because as a mom i would think any mom want their children to go out and make something of themselves, whatever they want to be a not to fall back and say the government has to help me unless absolutely necessary. When i was interviewing Tea Party Women and reading blogs, i began to see motherhood from developing. A lot of these women as mothers were arguing they fell conservative economic policies really were germane to women and mothers. That they talk really quickly about three frames in a talk more in the book. One is what i call the Kitchen Table frame. This is the idea that mother should become involved in conservative economic politics. When they say in their own budget that the federal government should do the same thing. Jenny beth martin who i interviewed still has Tea Party Patriot told me we are the ones in the houses and families who buy the groceries and look for whether or not we need coupons are seen what does make sense when it comes to our own checkbook, we are saying we want government to do the same thing. Women are doing this anyway in their own home. Another mama grizzly theme in the book is what i called the generational framework. A lot of Tea Party Women colin mothers to pressure political leaders to reduce the federal debt because they want to safeguard the next generation. They want to ensure their children and grandchildren have a higher standard of living. Someone was speaking at the susan b. Anthony breakfast and the speech was pretty publicized in the first time the term mama grizzly became introduced into the political lexicon. What she said in a speech where she was warning political leaders to be weary of moms rising up in the tea party to fight against the government. These women are getting involved because they want a better life for their kids, all of our kids. These policies, the fundamental transformation we went about in the campaign. A lot of women very concerned about their kids features that we dont like this road we arrived towards national solvency. Finally, the last motherhood frame related to the other two and lots of ways is the idea we should of limited government because that usurps the role of the family thereby fostering family disintegration. Socially conservative women use this framework quite a bit. I interviewed essay mentioned earlier calling holcombe who is the d. C. Director pushes Phyllis Schlafly is organization. I can see how Government Policies can be detrimental to families. Member for government to grow, families have to shrink. If you protect the family, have mothers and fathers together supporting each other in raising their own children, not only does that when the welfare used, marriage is the solution to poverty in the capital system provides the most opportunity for economic equality. Liberals arent always fighting for equality. We are deeply everyone has quality in the greatest thing they can do to provide equalities keep everyone safe and give economic freedom. The motherhood frame wasnt the only gendered framework i saw his women using news even the tea party. Several Tea Party Women went so far as to insist policies often touted by liberal groups, more social workers ending, having Company Requirements for family or increasing regulations against sex discrimination. All these things for these feminists are actually antifeminist because they believe liberal womens groups are policies that betray the original vision which promoted the idea of women being as equally capable as men. Give you an idea of the framework. I interviewed Amy Joe Clark who along with marion weaver hosted a popular blog called chicks on the right. They also have a radio show by the same name. When we talk about welfare programs, she told me what Many American women must support out of empathy, what women dont hear the messaging is how these programs keep women down. The cyclical things that keeps them dependent on these programs. They dont see how not empowering they are. She went on to draw a clear contrast between liberal womens groups who want these policies and what her groups advocate for. She said we say we are the real feminists and liberals have hijacked the term. Feminism is when youre accountable to yourself. Youre only empowered when when youre responsible accountable and able to take care of yourself. Some women extended the argument to guns. I wasnt going to write about guns in my book. I was on sabbatical from 2012 to 2013. The tragic shooting happened and all of a sudden when i was reading the website, i thought emphasis on gun rights, the idea of protecting and safeguarding the amendment. I was struck with the gendered argument that a lot of women were making about why was important to safeguard rights to bear arms. Some of them had a feminists bag. For some of these women, they made the argument that trying to take away womens right to guns is not empowering an antipaternalistic. This is a good example of that. My program who was writing for smart girl politics take issue with Vice President joe biden. If you recall, he was passed by president obama to spearhead duffers in the senate. That ultimately failed. Biden has told a group of women activists who are progun control their shotguns are just as effective and potentially stopping intruders. This is what smart girl politics had to say. Im getting sick of joe biden in all these people telling me i cant handle a certain caliber or have as many rounds in a magazine. It sounds like honey, that is too much for you where that is too loud for you. Im tired of it and a lot of women who dont agree with us would say where is the outcry. I can make these decisions for myself. I was struck again by this feminist rhetoric. I want to move on and talk about why it is women have emerged as Leaders Within the tea party in ways that differ from earlier conservative movement and also direct comparison to the Republican Party today. The first thing that distinguishes Tea Party Women is that they are simply bringing more resources to the political arena. They have higher levels of education. A lot of work experience. Lots of managerial experiods. This is different from the group Phyllis Schlafly was organizing. Political scientists on a direct link between socioeconomic data and political participation. The more likely you are participate in politics that is oneway Tea Party Women leaders are different. Social media has been really critical. Traditional involvement is very timeconsuming. Its very laborintensive. Social media has reduced the barriers to entry. Especially compared to the Republican Party, the tea party is more appealing because these women are conservative and dubious on the gop in lots of ways. I interviewed Katrina Pearson who hosted the tea party in dallas, texas and if that sounds familiar, you probably see her of thought on tv