McGill-Queen's University Press Blog

"Tough women who knew how to keep control" Lisa Fitterman's review of Women in Power by Blema Steinberg in The Vancouver Sun

978-0-7735-3356-1      May 2008

What does it take for a woman to reach the pinnacle of political power? Certainly, she needs strength, stamina and the ability to withstand criticism.

But there's more, according to political scientist and psychoanalyst Blema S. Steinberg. In Women in Power, she deconstructs the personalities of three female political leaders -- Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir and Margaret Thatcher -- and shows that they shared a marked tendency to dominate and control others.

Women on top: Dr. Blema Steinberg analyzes female heads of state in Women in Power

The Montreal Mirror's Juliet Waters interviews Blema Steinberg

Blema Steinberg’s first book, Shame and Humiliation: Presidential Decision Making on Vietnam, won the Quebec Writer’s Federation’s first book award. Her second book Women in Power: The Personality and Leadership Styles of Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir, and Margaret Thatcher is due out later this spring. Steinberg uses her training as a political scientist (the first woman in Canada to obtain a doctorate in international relations) and a psychoanalyst (she started a private practice in the mid-’80s) to examine the personality and leadership styles of world leaders. Since the gender of the next president of the United States still remains to be seen, we figured this might be a good time to talk to Steinberg about how men and women govern differently.