Women Rule

Katie Porter is a consumer advocate, law professor, parent, and — as of this week — a member of Congress. She’s among the more than 100 women elected in the 2018 midterms, a Democrat representing once deeply conservative Orange County, California, in the House. Porter is one of several new members of Congress with young children. Hers are ages 12, 10 and seven.

Piper Perabo tells the story of her journey from actor to activist. This podcast was recorded live at the 6th Annual Women Rule Summit in Washington, D.C. in collaboration with Ana Marie Cox from the podcast “With Friends Like These”.

Live from the Women Rule 2018 Summit: President Donald Trump has made numerous derisive comments about female reporters, but White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders won’t say whether he crossed the line.

2018 was the "Year of the Woman" — except when it comes to Republican lawmakers. “We’re falling way short. And the Democrats are outshining us, no doubt on that," Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said. Hear what she's planning to do about it, plus how she balanced her career with parenting and what she thinks of the future of the Republican party in West Virginia.

Deborah Rutter, the president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, spoke with Women Rule about how she deals with the political overtones that come with art, her mission to make sure all children in America have art as part of their school curriculum, and why she doesn’t find the fundraising that’s part of her job so difficult.

Gazelle Hashemian -- a successful IT executive whose latest venture is the wellness company Blue Flower -- said her deep sense of appreciation for opportunity in the United States comes from living through the Iranian Revolution in 1979. In 2001, she became president of Paragon Technology Group, a company that her husband founded in 1997, which grew into a successful multi-million dollar business.

NHL executive vice president Kim Davis is diversifying the NHL. Women Rule talks with Davis about her work to grow the league’s fan base, how she’s drawn inspiration from her family, and about political controversies in sports in the Trump era.

It was a historic night for women in midterm races around the country. Women Rule's Anna Palmer talks with POLITICO editor Carrie Budoff Brown and campaign reporter Elena Schneider about the state of play for women legislators, governors, and voters after the midterm elections.

With a potential new wave of women legislators coming to Capitol Hill after this election, Women Rule asked the question: What about their staffers? They’re the backbone of Congressional offices – the legislative assistants, the communications directors, the chiefs of staff. And women’s representation in these offices matters too. Just before the midterms, we’re bringing you this bonus episode on the minority women staffing Capitol Hill offices. In this live Women Rule podcast taping, which we recorded at The Wing’s D.C. offices, we talked to two minority women who serve as chiefs of staff: Natalie Armijo, chief of staff for Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, part of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and Caren Street, chief of staff for Rep. Karen Bass, who’s also part of the Congressional Black Caucus. We asked them about their paths to Capitol Hill, what it took to get them there, and the challenges they’ve faced since. To tee up that interview, we had Rhonda Foxx, chief of staff to Rep. Alma Adams, set the st

Fox News host Martha MacCallum will lead the network's coverage on election night. Women Rule talks with MacCallum about how she's prepping for the midterms, how she feels about the label of "fake news," and what it's like covering every twist and turn of the Trump White House.

Michelle Freeman, real estate magnate and partner at Monumental Sports and Entertainment (which owns the Washington Wizards, Capitals, and the WNBA Mystics), talks about women in sports team ownership, the equalizing power of sports, and Colin Kaepernick. Plus: A deeper look into how tragedy has shaped Freeman's personal and professional lives.

Best-selling author Jodi Picoult is out with a new book - and it has a lot of political implications about women's reproductive rights. Women Rule talks with Picoult about her literary successes (and failures), being labeled "chick lit," and what powerful men can learn from her books.

Cecile Richards, the former head of Planned Parenthood, opens up about the Supreme Court, her one "bizarre" meeting with Ivanka Trump, a childhood steeped in politics, and whether she'll ever run for elected office. This Women Rule episode was taped live at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin.

Jennifer Siebel Newsom, documentary filmmaker and women's rights advocate, could be the next first lady of California. Women Rule talks with Siebel Newsom about the film career she never anticipated, her work on gender equality, and why she'd rather be called the First "Partner," if her husband, Gavin Newsom, wins in November.

Women Rule talks with actress Jane Fonda about political activism, "radical kinship" with Donald Trump and his supporters, and the latest documentary examining her extraordinary life in the public eye, HBO's "Jane Fonda in Five Acts." We also chat with Fonda and filmmaker Susan Lacy about the arc of their careers and the relationships we build with women. The HBO documentary film "Jane Fonda in Five Acts" is available on HBO Now, HBO Go and on demand.

Dana Perino, the Fox News host of the afternoon “Daily Briefing” program and a co-panelist on “The Five,” had a life before cable news. Perino came from a lengthy career in politics, including serving as the White House press secretary under President George W. Bush - only the second woman to serve in that role. Women Rule talked with Perino about her winding professional path – how she started off as a journalist, then left news to work for several prominent Republicans, first on Capitol Hill, and then in Bush’s administration. With Perino’s window into both worlds, we discussed the state of presidential politics today, how this current Republican White House differs from her time in the Bush White House, and whether she’d ever find herself back in the West Wing.

Labor union leaders Liz Shuler and Mary Kay Henry discuss how they rose up through the union ranks and what they’re trying to do to increase the number of women in the labor movement. Shuler, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, and Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union, also weigh in on recent Supreme Court decisions, Brett Kavanaugh's nomination, and what that all means for the future of the labor movement.

Blogger, podcaster, and Conservative Review TV host Allie Beth Stuckey opens up about how being a conservative has marked her – wrongly – as someone who believes “sexism doesn’t exist.” Women Rule talks to Stuckey about her rise in right-leaning circles, who she looks up to in the Republican party, and what it means to be a conservative millennial in this day and age.

Ayanna Pressley could be the new face of an old-school Democratic district in Massachusetts. In our final installment of our "Tracking the candidates" series, Women Rule follows Pressley – the first black woman elected to Boston's City Council – as she runs in the state's 7th Congressional District to unseat 10-term incumbent Rep. Mike Capuano. It's an historic Democratic primary election that the entire party is watching, especially in the wake of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's upset victory against a powerful congressman in New York. In this episode, you’ll hear about the intimate details of campaign life, its ups and downs – but you’ll also hear about what Pressley’s race means for the Democratic party, what its future looks like, and just how different that could be from the party’s past. We're keeping tabs on the women running for office this year with our Women Rule Candidate Tracker. Make sure to check it out on POLITICO. Also: Ahead of our Washington summit, we're taking nominations for "Women of Impact

With Donald Trump as president, it’s not easy to run for Congress as a Republican woman this year. For Lea Márquez Peterson, who’s a GOP primary contender in Arizona’s second congressional district, that means she’s had to develop a strategy that both hugs the president’s policies – and distances herself from him. On the second episode of our "Tracking the candidates" mini-series, we talk to Márquez Peterson about her pivot to politics from business, her powerhouse fundraising efforts, being the only Hispanic woman in the room, and her Republican primary campaign in the era of President Donald Trump.