| 1. What did you already know about this book’s subject, before you read the book? |
| 2. Frances Perkins and Eleanor Roosevelt were colleagues who worked together for a lifetime and shared the same political viewpoints, but they were never close friends. Why? Is it likely that two such powerful women were naturally competitive with each other? |
| 3. What feelings did this book evoke for you? |
| 4. Frances Perkins reinvented herself in a remarkable series of ways: changing her name, religion, appearance, and even her age. Was she being cynical or slippery about her true identity in making these changes, or did they reflect an awareness of the obstacles she faced unless she made these adaptions? |
| 5. What do you think the author’s purpose was in writing this book? What ideas was she trying to get across? |
| 6. Perkins’ husband and daughter both suffered from mental illness. How well do you think she dealt with those problems? Did she sacrifice her own financial well-being too much? Or did she contribute to the problems in some way? Should she have quit her work to care for them at home, as some suggested? |
| 7. How did Frances Perkins’ extraordinary accomplishments pave the way for women in political life today, women like Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Elizabeth Dole, and Michelle Obama? |
8. What role do prominent husbands play in women’s political advancement, even today?
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