If you’re a woman who’s seriously considering a run for elected office, Rebecca Sive’s Every Day Is Election Day: A Woman’s Guide to Winning Any Office, from the PTA to the White House (Chicago Review Press, $17.95) is practically worthless, in the same vein that Lean In was practically worthless. It basically consists of peppy self-help advice laced with personal anecdotes from successful women.
“The only limitations on you are the ones you impose,” Sive announces in one chapter. “Lead with your strength, even if it’s perceived negatively by some,” she instructs in another. Obviously, this isn’t particularly gendered advice for aspiring elected officials. Nor is it particularly illuminating. Even the gendered chapters, like “Men are your enemies (except when they’re your friends)” are pretty benign. These common-sense slogans could just as easily be applied to a lonely woman’s love life as running for office.
And, like every self-help book ever created, it contradicts itself to cover all its bases. “The key to winning an elected or appointed office isn’t staking out positions and advocating for them, regardless of the practical realities of getting those positions adopted,” Sive explains early on. This is practical advice (that I happen to disagree with, but whatever). Several chapters later, Sive doubles back to explain that “compromise and negotiation don’t work if your principles aren’t firm… it is your duty to lead with the strength of your convictions and your willingness to manage the effects of acting on them.” In other words, stand by your ideals but never stake out positions.
I don’t have a problem with self-help books. I’m sure they help some people. But here’s why the book fails its target audience: Any woman who’s considering a run for elected office—and will be considered a credible candidate—is doing so because she’s already part of the system she wishes to change. She has a platform. She has an audience. Basically, she already has the bones of a campaign, so a book on how to build those bones is moot. Think immigrant women running for office to give a voice to immigrant and refugee populations, or women running for school board because they oppose statewide testing programs, which are two types of candidates I’ve seen run for local and statewide office in the past year. For these women, who already have a stake in the game, explanations about how lady candidates need to attract supporters, or learn to be adept at fundraisers, or be prepared to fight on the campaign trail, or want it more badly than the competition are laughably remedial.
That said, this book is far from worthless. I’d simply argue that its audience is different. Younger. High school or college age—the kind of young women with passion and ideals but little to no practical experience funneling all that passion and energy into a political outlet. For this population, a literary cheerleading squad full of personal anecdotes and practical (albeit general) advice on how to find a cause you care about, and how to network, is invaluable. Reading stories from the lives of successful female politicians is truly inspiring. Since the 1960s, women have been told they can do whatever they want, but they haven’t been given the practical knowledge to back it up. This is a societal road map actually showing young women how they can achieve their goals in a culture that still views them as inferior, and for young, opinionated women who long to make a difference in the world, it’s long overdue. 
