Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: A Feminist in the White House
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: San Diego
STATE: CA
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://mattingly.sdsu.edu/ * https://www.linkedin.com/in/doreen-mattingly-626a094a * http://newscenter.sdsu.edu/sdsu_newscenter/news_story.aspx?sid=75072 * http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-costanza-biography-mattingly-2016aug14-story.html * https://femalegazeliteraryreview.wordpress.com/2015/10/28/interview-with-sdsu-professor-doreen-mattingly-from-the-womens-studies-department/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born October 10, 1962.
EDUCATION:University of California, Berkeley, B.A.; University of California, Los Angeles, M.A.; Clark University, Ph.D.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and educator. San Diego State University, CA, instructor, 1995–, associate professor, co-director of Bread and Roses Center for Feminist Activism and Research, chair of department of women’s studies, 2016–.
AVOCATIONS:Painting, swimming, kayaking, knitting.
MEMBER:National Women’s Studies Association, Association of American Geographers, Western Political Science Association, Association of American Geographers, California Faculty Association.
AWARDS:Most Influential Faculty Member, College of Arts and Letters Student Association Outstanding Faculty Award, and Teaching Excellence Award, 2016, all San Diego State University. Grants and fellowships from organizations, including San Diego State University, National Science Foundation, and Fred J. Hansen Institute for World Peace.
WRITINGS
Contributor of chapters to books. Contributor of articles to publications, including Urban Geography, Michigan Feminist Studies, Historical Geography, and Journal of Geography in Higher Education.
SIDELIGHTS
Doreen Mattingly is a writer and educator. Since 1995 she has taught courses at San Diego State University. She currently holds the position of associate professor. Mattingly earned degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Los Angeles, and Clark University. She has written articles that have appeared in scholarly journals, including Urban Geography, Michigan Feminist Studies, Historical Geography, and Journal of Geography in Higher Education. Mattingly has also contributed chapters to books.
Women and Change at the U.S.-Mexico Border
Mattingly collaborated with Ellen R. Hansen to edit the 2006 book Women and Change at the U.S.-Mexico Border: Mobility, Labor, and Activism. The volume contains twelve essays on topics that include migration, female factory workers, and transnational organizations.
Ruth Brown, a reviewer in the Journal of Cultural Geography, offered a favorable assessment of Women and Change at the U.S.-Mexico Border. Brown described the volume as “A timely complement to the growing body of scholarship on gender and border culture.” Brown also commented: “The original research presented in these articles provides a wealth of ethnographic, descriptive, and empirical data on how women’s everyday lives are impacted by the experience of living in the borderlands. In general, the articles are well written and should be accessible to most audiences.”
A Feminist in the White House
In 2016 Mattingly released her first biography, A Feminist in the White House: Midge Costanza, the Carter Years, and America’s Culture Wars. In an interview with Marissa Cabrera and Maureen Cavanaugh, contributors to the KPBS Web site, Mattingly described Costanza, who was the first female to be appointed a presidential assistant, stating: “She was a working-class woman from upstate New York and she had a real working-class style to her that some people loved and some people hated.” Mattingly explained how she came to write the book in an interview with John Wilkens, a writer on the San Diego Union-Tribune Web site. Mattingly remarked: “She asked me to help her with her memoir. Ever since leaving the White House, she had been carrying around dozens of boxes of documents, intending to write it. I put her off for a number of years. I was at that time writing about women working in call centers in India, nothing like the Carter White House.” Mattingly continued: “We stayed friends, and then she called me and said: ‘I’ve got cancer for the third time. The one thing I want to do is this book. Please help me.’ And so I went. … Then she passed away very unexpectedly in 2010. And it kind of fell to me to write the book.”
In a lengthy assessment of the volume in the Women’s Review of Books, Ruth Rosen suggested: “We don’t learn about the anxiety Costanza must have felt as she concealed her relationships. Instead, this book is about her token status in the White House, and about how she and Carter negotiated the ferocity of the culture wars. It is political history, exceptionally readable and fascinating–but it is not a definitive, comprehensive biography of Midge Costanza, daughter, lover, and friend.” Rosen added: “Mattingly has resurrected an important figure in women’s history and widened our view of feminists in politics. She has provided hundreds of stories and anecdotes that reveal Costanza’s personality and behavior. Read A Feminist in the White House to learn about an extraordinary woman who witnessed the growth of the culture wars and the religious right from inside a presidential administration. But remember that a more personal story remains to be told.” Library Journal reviewer Jill Ortner noted that the book would appeal to “readers interested in early women’s movement issues, the Carter administration’s record on women’s issues, and women in politics.” “The biography is a fascinating and thorough look at the way second-wave feminism played out in the political arena, and highly relevant,” asserted a critic in Publishers Weekly.
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Journal of Cultural Geography, Ruth Brown, review of Women and Change at the US-Mexico Border: Mobility, Labor, and Activism, p. 248.
Library Journal, June 1, 2016, Jill Ortner, review of A Feminist in the White House: Midge Costanza, the Carter Years, and America’s Culture Wars, p. 111.
Publishers Weekly, April 4, 2016, review of A Feminist in the White House, p. 70.
Reference & Research Book News, February, 2007, review of Women and Change at the U.S.-Mexico Border.
Women’s Review of Books, January-February, 2017, Ruth Rosen, “Bringing the President to the People and the People to the President,” review of A Feminist in the White House, p. 13.
ONLINE
Female Gaze, https://femalgazeliteraryreview.wordpress.com/ (October 28, 2015), Sadie Miller, author interview.
It’s Your Money and Your Life!, http://www.iymoney.com/ (June 17, 2016), author profile.
KPBS Web site, http://www.kpbs.org/ (June 16, 2016), Marissa Cabrera and Maureen Cavanaugh, author interview.
San Diego Free Press Online, http://sandiegofreepress.org/ (August 11, 2016), Nassim Moallem, review of A Feminist in the White House.
San Diego State University Web site, http://mattingly.sdsu.edu/ (February 25, 2017), author faculty profile.
San Diego Union-Tribune Online, http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/ (February 25, 2017), John Wilkins, author interview.
SDSU Newscenter, http://newscenter.sdsu.edu/ (July 16, 2014), author interview.
LC control no.: n 2006011862
Personal name heading:
Mattingly, Doreen J., 1962-
Found in: Women and change at the U.S.-Mexico border, 2006: CIP t.p.
(Doreen J. Mattingly) dat sheet (b. Oct. 10, 1962;
associate professor of women's studies at San Diego
State University; has published on the topics of
domestic work, immigration, urban politics, feminist
research methods, and parent participation in public
schools; is beginning a new research project on women's
employment in call centers in India.)
================================================================================
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Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave., SE
Washington, DC 20540
Questions? Contact: ils@loc.gov
Doreen Mattingly and her tribute to Midge Costanza, “A Feminist In The White House”
June 17, 2016
Doreen MattinglyThis week Richard and Joe welcomed Professor and author, Dr. Doreen Mattingly. Dr. Mattingly is an Associate Professor of Women’s Studies at San Diego State University (SDSU). In her 21 years at SDSU she has taught a total of sixteen different courses, including her popular classes on women and politics, women’s movements and activism, and globalization and development.
In all of her classes she strives for relevance, rigor, and engagement, pushing students to consider multiple perspectives and to place current issues in historical and geographical context. Six times chosen as “Most Influential Faculty Member” by an outstanding graduate in her department and a previous recipient of the College of Arts and Letters Student Association Outstanding Faculty Award, she is the recipient of the 2016 Teaching Excellence Award for the College of Arts and Letters at SDSU.
Her academic publications are on a range of topics, including domestic work, immigration, urban politics, feminist research methods, and women’s activism in the 1970s. She is the co-editor (with Ellen Hansen) of “Women and Change at the U.S.-Mexico Border: Mobility, Labor, and Activism.” She is the recipient of the 2016 Teaching Excellence Award for the College of Arts and Letters at SDSU.
Dr. Mattingly’s newest book is “A Feminist in the White House: Midge Costanza, the Carter Years, and America’s Culture Wars.” The book chronicles the political career of Midge Costanza, a feminist who served as assistant to the president for public liaison under President Jimmy Carter—at the time, the highest position a woman had ever held in the White House.a-feminist-in-the-white-houseOn August the 16th at 7:30pm, Dr. Mattingly will be having a book signing at Warwick’s book store in La Jolla.
Behind the scenes, Dr. Mattingly serves the university as the Co-Director of the Bread and Roses Center for Feminist Activism and Research, a member of the SDSU University Senate, and a leader in the SDSU chapter of the California Faculty Association. In Fall 2016, she will assume the role of Chair of the Department of Women’s Studies.
She holds a PhD in Geography from Clark University, and MA from UCLA, and a BA from UC Berkeley.
Interview with SDSU Professor Doreen Mattingly from the Women’s Studies Department
On October 28, 2015 By femalegazeliteraryreviewIn Interviews
By Sadie Miller
Doreen_MattinglyDr. Doreen Mattingly is an SDSU Women’s Studies professor and has taught there for 20 years. Currently, she is working on a research project about Midge Costanza, who was a top-level advisor to President Jimmy Carter. #FemaleGaze is thankful to have had the chance to speak with her about her time as a professor and to hear what students think about issues regarding women’s rights.
What about Women’s Studies made you want to work as a professor at SDSU?
Professor Mattingly: My Ph.D. is in Geography. I wrote about women’s and gender issues in Geography and I was hired as 70% Geography and 30% Women’s Studies. Teaching Women’s Studies is the best thing because of the attitudes students bring to a Women’s Studies class. When people choose it as a way to do their GE, a lot of times more than half the students are excited about it and feel it could be for them. So, when you have students with that mindset, it’s a blast. I love Geography, but a lot of students go into it thinking I’m not going to be good at this, or I’m going to hate this. When you have students with that mindset, it’s hard to get them to let go of it. I can teach the same thing in both classes but students have already decided how they’re going to approach the material.
I love Women’s Studies and I have great colleagues. It’s a great department to work in and everybody is committed to student learning, social justice, and critical consciousness. I just felt more at home here. I originally wanted to do research on gender, I just thought it was so interesting. There’s so many things I was studying in Geography and then I started studying things about gender, and I just never thought I could write about this. There’s no limit to what one can do with it.
In recent months, there has been a lot of attention on Planned Parenthood. Has this been a topic in any of your classes? If so, what are your students saying about it?
Professor Mattingly: I share the newspaper a lot to make sure everyone knows what’s going on and who the players are. Most Women’s Studies students would say they’re for Planned Parenthood and reproductive rights. I wouldn’t say all of the students in the GE are by any means, they vary on that issue as well. I think a lot of what we’ve done is use that to talk about how abortion is used in politics rather than right or wrong, I don’t find those discussions are very helpful. Instead, we look at how the Democrat party is using it, how the Republican party is using it and how the media is framing it. I think that way, you can have a fruitful discussion with people who have different feelings about abortion.
For someone who has never taken a Women’s Studies course, what kinds of topics do you discuss and what is a common thread in each class?
Professor Mattingly: We try to look at knowledge by putting women’s experiences at the center rather than assuming the male norm. We try to be inter-sectional in what we do, thinking about gender in the context of race, class, and sexual orientation. We try to look at how gender intersects with these other things. We are all interested in social justice and the role of knowledge in that. We all think about gender as something that is socially constructed, such as what does it mean to be feminine or masculine and how firm is the line between them. We have Ph.D.’s ranging from Anthropology, Literature, History, Geography, and Psychology. Our topics focus on things like writing memoirs to international women’s movements, to war, and spirituality, so we cover many different realms of life.
What is one thing you want people to know about a Women’s Studies class?
Professor Mattingly: Take a class with us and you will learn some things you didn’t know!
QUOTED: "She was a working class woman from upstate New York and she had a real working class style to her that some people loved and some people hated."
‘A Feminist In The White House’ Chronicles Life, Work Of Activist Midge Costanza
Thursday, June 16, 2016
By Marissa Cabrera, Maureen Cavanaugh
She was an unlikely candidate to break through the political glass ceiling at the White House back in the 1970s.
Midge Costanza was the first woman to hold the position of assistant to the president for public liaison under President Jimmy Carter. A new book describes her as a feminist, an outspoken activist, a woman without a college education and for a short time, one of the most influential women in America.
In "A Feminist in the White House," author and San Diego State University women's studies professor Doreen Mattingly chronicles Costanza's life and work from Rochester, New York to Washington D.C. and San Diego.
Mattingly said no woman before Costanza had been picked to be part of an inner circle of advisors to any president, and that Carter's pick of Costanza showed his support of the women's movement.
Costanza used her position to lobby for LGBT rights, including same-sex marriage, and abortion, Mattingly said.
"She was a working class woman from upstate New York and she had a real working class style to her that some people loved and some people hated," she said. "She was marginalized in the Carter White House and she chose not to accept it."
"She was definitely an outsider in every way," Mattingly added. "In region, in gender, in politics, in ethnicity, in style. She didn't like them and they didn't like her. But she did have Carter's ear and everyone knew that."
But in Costanza's first summer, she spoke out against Carter's decision to oppose federally-funded abortions, which began her split from the Carter administration.
Costanza died in San Diego in 2010.
Midge Costanza: Brilliant, Flawed Feminist in the White House
August 11, 2016 by At Large
San Diego author Dr. Doreen Mattingly’s biography of Midge Constanza
By Nassim Moallem
Reading and Book Signing by Dr. Doreen Mattingly
Tuesday August 16, 2016, 7:30 pm
Warwicks Books, La Jolla, 92037
feminist white houseMidge Costanza wanted her life story to inspire women to become engaged with the political process—but struggled with how to do so when her own political career was full of frustrating barriers and disappointments. San Diego State University Women’s Studies professor Doreen Mattingly outlines this dilemma in her introduction before presenting us with ten chapters that do just what Midge wanted.
A Feminist in the White House is a biography that shows us a woman who tried her best to make change she believed in. She was a woman who succeeded by winning a seat on City Council, hosting the first group of openly gay and lesbian leaders at the White House, having diverse and progressive women commission International Women’s Year, becoming the first female assistant to the president.
She was also a woman who failed– not becoming mayor of Rochester, not getting President Carter’s outspoken support for abortion and the ERA, not being respected by her White House colleagues, not staying in her White House position for more than 20 months. Her failures don’t make her life any less compelling or admirable; if anything they make her accomplishments feel that much more important.
This book discusses Midge’s journey from an office in Rochester, New York to City Council, the Democratic National Convention, campaign trails, the White House, and all the way to San Diego. Midge’s fight against sexism that was severely impeded by the immense sexism she constantly faced.
Throughout the book I felt like I was living alongside Midge. I watched her learn about how feminism applied to herself, juggle her advocacy for LGBTQ rights with her own ambiguous sexuality. I watched her try and get the Equal Rights Amendment be a priority for the Carter Administration. I watched her spend long nights in her office replying to mounds of constituent letters because she really believed every person mattered. I watched her yearn to believe in her dear friend President Carter, and feel the worst betrayal from him. The mounting frustrations she faced build so well in the book that her final resignation from the White House had me in tears alongside her.
Midge is certainly a hero in my eyes after reading this book, but she is an atypical hero. She doesn’t save the day—she fights to get through each one.
She charmed people with a quick joke and struggled to have a personal life alongside her political one. She was a woman whose high school yearbook predicted she would the first female president of the United States. Midge was brilliant and flawed. She was human. There is something truly refreshing in reading about someone who was not perfect and still tried to change the world she was a part of.
“I knew I was going to live my life instead of just exist through it. I’m sure there are a lot of people along the way who haven’t agreed with how I’ve done it. So be it. I have to know who I am,” Midge said in an interview. A Feminist in the White House is a testament to her having done just that.
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
7 Things About Doreen Mattingly
Mattingly has taught in SDSU's Department of Women's Studies since 1995.
By
Story Keywords: Arts and Letters, Faculty, Women Studies, 7 Things, News, People, Diversity
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Doreen Mattingly is an associate professor for the Department of Women’s Studies at San Diego State University.
1. What inspired you to do this kind of work?
My sister tells me that I when came home from my first semester at Berkeley I announced I was going to be a geography professor, which suggests one of my teachers that semester inspired me. In truth, I don’t remember any of that, and after I got my bachelor's degree I spent several years floundering before I decided to go to graduate school. I had finally landed a pretty good job working for the Girl Scouts, but the lack of intellectual stimulation was killing me.
I became a professor because that is what happens to people who can’t stay away from the university. With this job I get to read and think and write and talk about interesting things all the time. Where else could I do that?
2. How long have you worked at SDSU?
In 1995 I was hired with a joint appointment in geography and women’s studies. In 2001, after I got tenure, my appointment was changed and I now work full time for the Department of Women’s Studies. Geography is my first love and the discipline I earned all my degrees in, but I really enjoy teaching women’s studies.
Women’s studies majors are probably the most passionate and committed people on campus. Working with them is a joy.
I also like the students in my general education classes and the attitude they bring to the material. Maybe we attract particularly engaged and open-minded students, or maybe people just bring a different kind of curiosity to a women’s studies class. Whatever the reason, some of my most interesting conversations take place in my general education classes, especially in my Sex, Power and Politics class.
3. What is the best piece of advice you ever received?
Right now I’m winding up a six-year book project writing a book about Midge Costanza, who was, among other things, the first female assistant to a president and a friend of mine. In all her speeches, Midge used to say something like “Live your life fully, don’t just exist through it.” That’s advice that is not only wise, it is something I actually try to do. Life is short — make today count.
4. What is your favorite thing about your job?
When I’m lucky, my favorite thing is whatever I’m working on at the moment. Right now I’m finishing up my book, so that is my favorite thing. It’s called "An Unwilling Token: Midge Costanza, Jimmy Carter, and the Politics of Feminism." Hopefully a year from now you will be able to buy a copy in the bookstore and bring it by my office for a signature.
I’m also pretty excited about a new class I’m working on for fall 2014 called Women’s Activism and Organizations, and it will be focused on connecting women’s studies majors (and other interested people) to organizations and agencies in the community. My goal is to help students find jobs, meaningful opportunities for activism and a chance to do applied research.
5. What about your field or position do you think would surprise people the most?
A lot of people don't know what women's studies and feminism really are. They might think they know, usually because of something they heard, or they might believe that women are totally equal today and the whole field is no longer relevant. Usually when I explain what we really do in my field and why I'm a feminist, they are usually intrigued and occasionally inspired. Curious? Take a women's studies class!
6. What is the most interesting or surprising thing about you?
I am a reasonably good oil painter — I’ve had a few exhibits around town and when I retire I plan to go to art school and see where my art will take me. I also love the Pacific Ocean. During the summer I’m in it (usually swimming the Cove) or on it (in my kayak) almost every day. I’m a big knitter, which for some reason surprises people. I guess it doesn’t fit their stereotype of a feminist.
7. If you could only rescue one thing from your burning office, what would it be?
One of the things I inherited in 2010 when Midge Costanza died was a copy of an Andy Warhol print of Costanza’s mentor, Bella Abzug. Abzug was a congresswoman from New York and one of the most influential feminists of the 1970s. The print is signed by Abzug with a note to Midge, whom she calls “our top woman.” I don’t think it’s worth much money, but it is one of the coolest things I own.
Bonus Question
1. What is your favorite kind of music/what are your favorite bands?
Joni Mitchell is the greatest songwriter of the 20th Century. Enough said.
Dr. Doreen J. Mattingly
Associate Professor, Department of Women's Studies, SDSU
Arts and Letters (AL) 315
(619) 594-8033
e-mail: MATTINGL@mail.sdsu.edu
Dr. Doreen Mattingly has a Ph.D. from Clark University in Geography, and has been teaching in the SDSU Women's Studies Department since 1995.
Research and Publications
Doreen Mattingly’s newest book is A Feminist in the White House: Midge Costanza, the Carter Years, and America’s Culture Wars. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016)
About the book: A feminist, an outspoken activist, a woman without a college education, Midge Costanza was one of the unlikeliest of White House insiders. Yet in 1977 she became the first female Assistant to the President for Public Liaison under Jimmy Carter, emerging as a prominent focal point of the American culture wars. Tasked with bringing the views of special interest groups to the president, Costanza championed progressive causes even as Americans grew increasingly divided on the very issues for which she fought.
In A Feminist in the White House, Doreen Mattingly draws on Costanza's personal papers to shed light on the life of this fascinating and controversial woman. Mattingly chronicles Costanza's dramatic rise and fall as a public figure, from her initial popularity to her ultimate clashes with Carter and his aides. While Costanza challenged Carter to support abortion rights, gay and lesbian rights, and feminist policies, Carter faced increased pressure to appease the interests of emerging Religious Right, which directly opposed Costanza's ideals. Ultimately, marginalized both within the White House and by her fellow feminists, Costanza was pressured to resign in 1978.
Through the lens of Constanza's story, readers catch a unique perspective of the rise of debates which have defined the feminist movement and sexual politics to this very day. Mattingly also reveals a wider, but heretofore neglected, narrative of the complex era of gender politics in the late 1970's Washington - a history which continues to resonate in politics today. A Feminist in the White House is a must-read for anyone with an interest in sexual politics, female politicians, and presidential history.
Teaching
Dr. Mattingly regularly teaches Women's Work (WS 385), Sex, Power and Politics (WS 375), Women’s Movements and Activism (WS 530), Women, Development, and the Global Economy (WS 580), Transnational Economies and Gender (WS 609), and Methods of Inquiry in Women's Studies (WS 602). She directs the Internship Program (WS 598) and is the Women's Studies Undergraduate Advisor. In Spring, 2012, she was given the Exceptional Faculty Award by the students of the College of Arts and Letters.
International
Dr. Mattingly has co-directed three travel study programs, two to the People's Republic of China (2001 and 2004) and one to India (2002-03). She has been a visiting lecturer at Delhi University, Jesus and Mary College and Beijing University, Women's Studies and Development Center, visiting lecturer, November 2004. During Spring, 2005, she spent her sabbatical leave in New Delhi, India, conducting research on call center workers.
Doreen Mattingly
6
Mattingly, Doreen J. 2001. The home and the world: Domestic service and international
networks of caring labor.
The Annals of the
Association of American Geographers
91(2):
370-
386.
Mattingly, Doreen J. 1999. “
Job search, social networks, and local labor market dynamics:
The case of paid household work in San Diego, California.”
Urban Geography
, 20(1): 46-
74.
Mattingly, Doreen J., Susan Hanson, and Geraldine Pratt. 1998. “At home with the kids:
Women’s lives, local geographies, and the effects of maternal breaks on women’s
employment.”
Michigan Feminist Studies
, 12: 1-
25.
Mattingly, Doreen J. 1998. “Gender and the politics of scale: the Christian right, sex
education, and ‘community’ in Vista, California, 1990-
1994.”
Historical Geography
26:
65-
82.
Hansen, E., with S. Kennedy, D. Mattingly, B. Mitchneck, K. Monzel, and C. Nairne.
1995. “Facing the future, surviving the present: strategies for women graduate students in
geography,”
Journal of Geography in Higher Education
19(3): 307-
315.
Mattingly, Doreen J. and Karen Falconer Al
-Hindi. 1995. “Should women count? A
context
for the debate,”
The Professional Geographer
47(4): 327-
335.
Scott, Allen J. and Doreen J. Mattingly, 1989. “The aircraft and parts industry in
Southern California: Continuity and change from the inter
-war years to the 1990s,”
Economic Geography
65(1): 48-
71.
Chapters in Books
Mattingly, Doreen J. 2011. “
Indian Women Working in Cal
l Centers: Sites of
Resistance?”
Globalization, Technology Diffusion and Gender Disparity: Social Impacts
of ICTs
, eds. Rekha Pande and Theo van der Weide. IGI Global
.
Mattingly, Doreen J. 1999. “Making maids: U.S. immigration policy and immigrant
domestic workers.”
Gender, Migration, and Domestic Service
, ed. Janet Momson. New
York: Routledge.
Thomas Herman and Doreen J. Mattingly. 1999. “Community, justice, and
the ethics of
research: negotiating reciprocal research relations.”
Geography and Ethics: Journeys in a
Moral Terrain
, eds. James D. Proctor and David M. Smith. New York: Routledge.
Mattingly, Doreen J. 1997. “Working men and dependent wives: Gender, ra
ce, and the
regulation of migration from Mexico.” In
Women Transforming Politics
, eds. Kathy
Jones, Joan Tronto, and Cathy Cohen. New York: New York University Press, 47-
61.
Doreen Mattingly
7
Hanson, Susan, Geraldine Pratt, Doreen Mattingly, and Melissa Gilbert. 1994. “W
omen,
work, and urban environ
ments.” In
Women and the Environment
, eds. I. Altman and A.
Churchman, New York: Plenum Press, 227-
253.
Book Reviews
Mattingly, D. J. 2014. Review of
Feminism as Life’s Work: Four Modern American
Women through Two World W
ars
by Mary Trigg. Published in
Choice
52(4): 687
Mattingly, D.J
. 2014. Review of
Feminist identity development and activism in
revolutionary movements
by Teresa
O’Keefe.
Choice
51(12): 2277.
Mattingly, Doreen and Claire Scripter. 2013, Review of
Emma Goldman: Political
Thinking in the Streets
by Kathy E. Furgeson, Published in
Gender, Place and Culture
20(2): 271-
2.
Mattingly, Doreen J. 2012. Review of
A Jumble of Needs: Women’s Activism and
Neoliberalism in the Colonias of the Southwest
by Rebecca Dolhinow, University of
Minnesota Press, 2010 Published in
Social & Cultural G
eography
13(7): 850 -
851
Mattingly,
Doreen J. 2011. Review of
Making their Place: Feminism after S
ocialism in
Eastern Germany,
by Katja M. Guenther, Stanford University Press, 2010. Published in
Choice,
48(7): 1388.
Mattingly, Doreen J
. 2009. Review of
Telling Young Lives: Portraits of Global Y
outh,
ed.
by Craig Jeffrey and Jane Dyson. Temple University, 2008. Published in
Choice,
March
2009.
Mattingly, Doreen J. 2002. Review of
Women and the City: Gender, Space, and Power in
Boston, 1870-
1940
, by Sarah Deutsch. In
The Annals of the Association of American
Geographers.
Mattingly, Doreen J. 2001. Review of
Gendering the City: Women, Boundaries
, and
Visions of Urban Life
, edited by Kristine B. Miranne and Alma H. Young. In
Gender,
Place and Culture
, 8 (3): 307.
Mattingly, Doreen J. 2000. Review of
Women and Work in Mexico's Maquiladoras
by
Altha J. Cravey. In
Economic Geography,
76 (4)401-
02.
Mattingly, Doreen J. 1998. Review of
Thresholds in Feminist Geography: Difference,
Methodology, Representation
, edited by John Paul Jones, III, Heidi J. Nast, and Susan M.
Roberts. In
The Professional Geographer
, 1998, 50(3): 65-
82.
Doreen Mattingly
8
Mattingly, Doreen J. 1998. Review of
Roads to Dominion: Right
-Wing Movements and
Political Power in the United States
, by Sara Diamond.
Social Sciences Quarterly.
79(2):
475-
6.
Mattingly, Doreen J. 1998. Review of
Ethnic Los Angeles
, edited by Roger Waldinger
and Mehdi B
ozorgmehr.
Historical Geography
26: 221-
22.
Mattingly, Doreen J. 1996. Review of
Servicing the Middle Classes
, by Nicky Gregson
and Michelle Lowe.
Annals of the Association of American Geographers
86(3): 607-
8.
Mattingly, Doreen J. 1994. Review of
Seeking Common Ground: Multidisciplinary
Studies of Immigrant Women in the United States
edited by Donna Gabaccia.
Gender,
Place, and Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography
1(1):131-
2.
Other Publications
Mattingly, Doreen J. 2016. "Feminine Mystique, The (Betty Friedan, 1963),"
Dictionary
of American History, Supplement: America in the World, 1776 to the Present
. Charles
Scribner's Sons, Macmillan Reference USA
Mattingly, Doreen J. 2009. “Women’s Lives in the Border Region,”
Insight
s on Law and
Society,
9(3): 15-
16.
Esbenshade, Jill and Doreen Mattingly. 2008. “One Way to Help American Families,”
San Diego Union Tribune,
December 2.
Mattingly, Doreen J. 2004. "Community," "Non-
Sexist City," and "Gender
Discrimination," in
Encyclop
edia of the City, ed.
Roger Caves, Routledge.
Mattingly, Doreen J. 1999. “Chicano/a,” “Mestizo/a,” and “Colour, Women of”
“Welfare State,” in
A Feminist Glossary of Human Geography
, eds. Linda McDowell and
Joanne P. Sharp. London: Arnold.
Mattingly, D
oreen J. 1998. “Maid in the USA,”
The New Internationalist
, 305
(September): 14
-15.
Program Evaluation Contracts
UCLA NRC Consortium, Department of Education Title VI grant, overall evaluation,
2012-
2013.
SDSU Language Acquisition Resource Center
(LARC)
, Department of Educ
ation Title
VI grant, 2007-
2010, 2010-
2015.
Doreen Mattingly
9
SDSU Center for International Business (
SDSU CIBER), Department of Educ
ation Title
VI grant, 2007-
2010, 2010-
2015, 2015-
2020.
San Diego Consortium for Latin American Studies, Department of E
ducation Title VI,
2007-
2010.
SDSU Chinese Studies, Department of Education Title VI UISFL grant, 2010-
2013.
UCLA Center for International Business (SDSU CIBER), Department of Education Title
VI grant, 2007-
2010, 2010-
2015.
UCLA National Heritage
Language Resource Center, Department o
f Education Title VI
grant (2010-
2015).
Southwestern College, Department of Education BIE Grant,
International Transportation
and Logistics Skills Training Project (2010
-2012).
State of California, First 5 Commission. San Diego, South Bay Region, Healthy
Development Services. 2006-
2012
Funded Research, Grants, and Contracts
SDSU University Grant Program award, 2016-
2017, “In a Feminist State? The Women’s
Movement and California
Government.”
Undergraduate Research Program Mini
-Grant, Fall 2016, Research on California
Feminism.
Summer Undergraduate Research Program Award, Summer 2017, “In a Feminist State?
The Women’s Movement and California Government.”
SDSU President’s
Leadership Fund, 2014-
15. “Women’s Studies in the Community.”
SDSU
Sabbatical leave, Spring 2013. “
Unlikely Insider: A Political Biography of Midge
Costanza
.”
SDSU Facu
lty Development Program (FDP), 2011. “
Unlikely Insider: A Political
Biography of Midge
Costanza
.”
SDSU College of Arts and Letters Minigrant. 2009. “Midge Costanza Archives”
SDSU Department of Women’s Studies, Carstens
-Wertz Faculty Grant Program, 2009.
“Midge Costanza Archives.”
Doreen Mattingly
10
SDSU Center for International Business Research (CIBER),
Faculty Grant Program,
2004. “Call Centers, Gender, and Globalization: A Comparative Study,” $3,490.
SDSU Faculty Development Program (FDP), 2004“
Call Centers, Gender, and
Globalization: A Comparative Study,” $4,454.
SDSU Office of International Programs, International Opportunity Grants for exchange
program with India: $6,000 for 2005-
2006, $4,000 for 2004-
2005, $4,000 for 2003-
2004.
Sempra Energy, financial support for “Getting a Life” $2,500, 2004.
Fred J. Hansen Institute for World Peace, Minigrant for “Women Connecting: Gender,
Peace, and Politics in China and the United States,” (Huma Ghosh and Doreen Mattingly,
co-P.I.s), $3,000, 2003-
2004.
Fred J. Hansen Institute for World Peace, Mini
grant for “Women’s Peace Activism in
India (Doreen Mattingly and Huma Ghosh, co
-P.I.s), $5,000, 2002-
2003.
SDSU Research Scholarly and Creative Activity (RSCA), Faculty Development Program
(FDP) award for “Listening to Parents,” 1/01 – 7/01, $4,929 and half
-time semester
leave.
Fred J. Hansen Institute for World Peace, Minigrant for “Women Connecting: Gender,
Peace, and Politics in China and the United States,” (Huma Ghosh and Doreen Mattingly,
co-P.I.s), $5,000, 2000-
2001.
SDSU Office of International Programs, International Opportunity Grants for exchange
program with China: $5,000 for 1999-
2000, $6,000 for 2000-
2001, $3,000 for 2003-
2004.
National Science Foundation, Geography and Regional Science Program, Research
Workshop Grant for “The Geographies of Young People and Young People’s
Geographies,” (Stuart Aitken and Doreen Mattingly, co
-P.I.s), $29,932, 1/97-
12/98.
California Council for the Humanities, “Imagining Community,” (Doreen Mattingly,
P.I.), $9,630, 12/97-
10/98.
SDSU Research Scholarly and Creative Activity (RSCA) award for “Gender, Race, and
Economic Polarization in San Diego,” $260, 12/96
-6/97.
National Science Foundation, Geography and Regional Science Program, Doctoral
Dissertation Improvement Award for “Domestic Service, Migration, and Local Labor
Market Transformations” (Susan Hanson, P.I./Advisor), 6/93 -
9/94.
Scholarly Awards
Doreen Mattingly
11
Facul
ty Fellow, June Burnett Institute for Children, Youth, and Families. San Diego
State University, 1999.
SDSU Faculty Development Program Committee, half
-time leave with pay for “Gender,
Race, and Economic Polarization in San Diego.” Spring 1997.
Associa
tion of American Geographers, Urban Geography Specialty Group Award for
Outstanding Dissertation Proposal, 1993.
Association of American Geographers, Geographic Perspectives on Women Specialty
Group
Award for Outstanding Dissertation Proposal, 1993.
Irene M. and Mary Piper Fellowship, Clark University Graduate School of Geography,
1990-
1991.
Invited Lectures
San Diego Miramar
College, “
From the Kitchen to the Cabinet
,” March 23, 2012.
San Diego League of Women’s Voters, “The Past, Present, and Future
of the Women’s
Movement,” October 23, 2011.
Fair Housing Laws and Litigation Conference, “Feminism and Fair Housing,” February
10, 2011.
Women
’s Legislative Network, National Conference of State Legislatures. “The Impact
of the Economic Crisis on Women.” December 12, 2009.
Mesa College, Women's History Month Lecture, "Education and Employment:
Improving Women's Lives." Annually: 2002, 2003, 2004.
Peking University, Center for Women’s Studies. November 2002. Visiting University
lecturer: Gave thr
ee talks: “Gender, Domestic Labor, and Migration,” “Feminist Theory
in the US,” and “Research Methods in Women’s Studies.”
University of Arizona, Department of Geography, “Globalization and Social
Reproduction: The Case of Domestic Service in San Diego, California.” March 5, 1999.
San Diego State University, Department of Women’s Studies Research Colloquium,
“Feminist Research Methods and Community Theater: Lessons from the City Heights
Project.” September 23, 1998.
San Diego Sate University, Department
of Geography, “Geography, Community, and
Theater” April 17, 1998
Doreen Mattingly
12
University of Southern California, Department of Geography, “Domestic Service in
Southern California: Changing the Map of Gender, Race, and Class.” October 25, 1996.
Dartmouth College, Dep
artment of Geography. “Domesticas y Patronas: Domestic
Service, Immigration, and Gender on the U.S.-
Mexico Border.” May 5, 1995.
Conference Participation
“Toward a Regional Geography of Second
-Wave Feminism in the United States,”
presented at the Association of American Geographers Annual Meetings, San Francisco
CA, March 29-
April 2, 2016.
“Token Feminists
and the Unhappy Relationship between the Carter A
dministration and
Washington Feminism,” Western Political Science Association, Las Vegas NV, April 2
-
5, 2015.
“’Washington Feminism’
in the Late 1970s: The Role of Local Networks in Shaping a
National Agenda for Women's Economic E
quity.” Association of A
merican
Geographers, Los Angeles, CA April 9-
13, 2012.
“Can Revolution Survive Washington? Feminists in the Carter Administration.”
National Women
’s Studies Association, O
akland, CA, November 9-
12, 2012.
“Indian Call Centers: The Outsourcing of ‘Good Jobs’ for Women?” Women and
Globalization Conference, Center for Global Justice, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico,
July 27-
August 3, 2005.
“Metaphor and Materiality at the US
-Mexico Border,” Association of American
Geographers Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA March 15
-20, 2004.
"Author Meets Critics: Joe Nevin's
Operation Gatekeeper.
" (panelist). Association of
American Geographers Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, CA March 19
-23, 2002.
"Parental Involvement in Public Schools: Public Mothering or Neighborhood A
ctivism,"
Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, New York, NY. March 28-
April
3, 2001
“The Home and the World: Domestic Service and International Networks of Caring
Labor,” Pacific Southwest Women’s Studies Conference (PSWSA), Annual Meeting, San
Diego, April 21, 2000.
“Immigration, Globalization, and Social Imaginations.” Plenary Speech. Institute of
Druze Studies 2
nd
Annual International Conference Immigrant Religious Communities:
Ideas and Identities. September 8
-9, 2000.
Doreen Mattingly
13
“Parents, Te
achers, and Place: The Gendered Geography of Public School Reform.”
National Women’s Studies Association Annual Meetings, Albuquerque, New Mexico,
June 17-
20, 1999.
“Women’s Work and the Place of Public Schools.” Association of American
Geographers Annual Meeting, Honolulu, Hawaii, March 24-
27, 1999.
“Globalization and Social Reproduction: The Case of Domestic Service in San Diego,
California.” Gendered Sites, Human Rights; Gendered Rites, Human Sites: Southern
Regional Conference of the International Geographical Union Commission on Gender,
University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand, February 8
-11, 1999.
“Staging the Community: Place
-Based Theater and Community Development.”
Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, Boston MA, March 25-
29, 1998.
“We Aren’t What You Think We Are,” Around the World in a Single
Day Research and
Production Team for the Western Geography Graduate Student Conference, San Diego
State University, February 13
-14, 1998.
“Local Politics, Public Schools, and the Christian Right.” Association of American
Geographers Annual Meeting, Charl
otte NC, April 9
-13, 1996.
“Coming to Clean: Paid Household Work and Women’s Migration from Mexico.”
Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, Chicago IL, SDSU Language
Acquisition Resource Center, Department of Education Title VI grant, 2007-
2010.
March 14
-18, 1995.
“Beyond Nannygate: A Study of Employers of Paid Household Help.” Association of
American Geographers Annual Meeting, San Francisco, March 29
-April 2, 1994.
“Su Casa es mi Trabajo: Home, Work, and Domestic Service on the U.S./Mexi
co
Border.” Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, Atlanta GA, April 6-
10,
1993.
“Comparative Gender Relations and Local Labor Markets: The Case of Domestic
Service.” Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, San Diego, April 18-
22, CA, 1992.
Participation in Professional Associations
Member, National Women’
s Studies Association (1999-
present
)
Member, Association of American Geographers (1988-
present)
Member, Western Political Science Association (2015
-present)
Member, Glenda Laws Award Committee, Association of American Geographers (2003
-
2005)
Doreen Mattingly
14
Board Member, Urban Geography Specialty
Group, Association of American
Geographers (1998
-2000)
Founding listowner, URBGEOG e
-mail discussion list, Urban Geography Specialty
Group of the Ass
ociation of American Geographers (1994-
1998).
Board Member, Commission on the Status of Women in Geography, Association of
American Geographers (1993
-1994).
Other Professional Growth
Editorial Board,
International Journal of Social and Cultural Geography,
(1998 to 2003)
Editorial Board,
Environment and Planning A
(2002 to 2006)
Book Review Editor,
The Professional Geographer
(1998-
2000)
Instructor, California Geographical Alliance, Summer Geographic Commuter Institute
(1998-
1999).
Instructor and field trip leader,
Finding A Way
teacher enhancement program of the
National Council for Geographic Education (July 1997).
VI. SERVICE FOR THE UNIVERSITY AND COMMUNITY
University Service
Co
-Director, Center for Bread and Roses (2014 to present)
Co
-Director,
Feminist Activist Research Symposium
(2015-
present)
Senator, SDSU Senate (2002 to 2006, 2011 to present
)
Chair, Class Size Senate Task Force (2014
-2016)
Member, University General Education Committee (2011 to present)
Director,
Day of Action: Teach
-in on the Effect of Budget Cuts on W
omen
(2011)
Fac
ulty Advisor, Womyn’s Outreach Association (2011-
present)
Member, University Research Council (2002 to 2006)
Member, SDSU Foundation Redevelopment Project Advisory Group (2002
-2004)
Director, Getting a Life: Women Connnecting for Career Success” (2002 to present)
Faculty Advisor, Women’s Studies Student Association (1999-
2002)
Faculty Advisor, Women’s Resource Center (1997
-2002)
Faculty Organizer, “Take Back the Night” March (1996-
1997).
Panelist, “Around the World in a Single Day Forum” SDSU Founder’s Day
(1997)
College Service
Member, Dean’s Advisory Committee (2015 to present)
College of Arts and Letters Director of Grants and Contracts (2008-
2009)
Academic Planning Committee (member, 2001-
2003, chair 2003 to 2010)
Member, City Heights Research Team (19
96-
1998)
Member, Task Force Against Violence on Campus (1996)
Department Service
Women’s Studies Department:
Interim Chair, (Fall 2014)
Assessment Coordinator (
2003-
2005, 2013 to present)
Doreen Mattingly
15
Co
-Director, Colloquium series (2014-
15)
Undergraduate Advisor
(2000 to present)
Director, Internship Program (2000 to present)
Chair, Curri
culum Committee (2002 to 2014)
Chair, Schola
rship Committee (2002 to 2014)
Member, Personnel committee (2001 to present)
Member, Graduate admissions committee (2000 to present)
Me
mber, Hiring committee (all hires 2001 to present, Chair in 2007)
)
Director,
Day of Action: Teach in on the effect of budget cuts on women
(2011)
Steering Committee, STINT collaboration with University of Örebro, Sweden (2000-
2002)
Geography Department:
Member, Undergraduate Advising Committee (1998-
1999).
Member, Hiring Committee (1997
-1999).
Member, Ad hoc Ph.D. teaching committee (1996).
Chair, Speakers and Public Relations Committee (1996
-1997)
California Faculty Association Service
Co
-chair
, Fac
ulty
Rights Committee, 2011
-present
Co
-coordinator, Cont
ract Strategy Group, 2011-
present
Community Service
Research D
irector, Midge Costanza Institute
(2009 to 2015)
Board member, San Diego Women’s Repertory Theater (2002 to 2005)
Panelist, United Nations International Symposium on Human Settlement, (1996).
Research Director, “Around the World in a Single Day” (1997-
1998).
Community Research Advisor, San Diego Repertory Theater (1997-
1998)
Professional Service
Reviewer,
Antipode: A Journal of Radical Geography
Reviewer,
Journal of Geography in Higher Education
Reviewer,
International Journal of Feminist Politics
Reviewer,
Journal of Historical Geography
Reviewer,
Urban Geography
Reviewer,
The Professional Geographer,
Reviewer,
Hy
patia
Reviewer,
Gender, Place and Culture
Reviewer,
Environment and Planning D: Society and Space
Reviewer,
Economic Geography
Reviewer, Grant Applications, National Science Foundation, 1998-
present
Reviewer, Book Proposals, Addison, Wesley, Longman
Limited; Routledge; Guilford,
University of Michigan, University of Arizona; 1997-
present
Doreen Mattingly
Professor at San Diego State University
San Diego, California
Higher Education
Current
San Diego State University
Education
UCLA
16
connections
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Experience
San Diego State University
Professor
San Diego State University
September 1995 – Present (21 years 6 months)
The courses I regularly teach are:
Women’s Studies 375 -- Sex, Power, and Politics
Women’s Studies 385 -- Women’s Work
Women’s Studies 530 – Women’s Movements and Activism
Women’s Studies 580 -- Women, Development, and the Global Economy
Women’s Studies 602 -- Methods of Inquiry in Women’s Studies
Women’s Studies 609 -- Transnational Economies and Gender
Skills
Student AffairsTeachingStudent DevelopmentLecturingScienceCurriculum DesignDistance LearningCollege TeachingCurriculum DevelopmentStatisticsAcademic Advising
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Great•Has errors
Education
UCLA
UCLA
Master of Arts (M.A.), Geography
1987 – 1991
Clark University
Clark University
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Geography
QUOTED: "She asked me to help her with her memoir. Ever since leaving the White House, she had been carrying around dozens of boxes of documents, intending to write it. I put her off for a number of years. I was at that time writing about women working in call centers in India, nothing like the Carter White House."
"We stayed friends, and then she called me and said: 'I’ve got cancer for the third time. The one thing I want to do is this book. Please help me.' And so I went. ... Then she passed away very unexpectedly in 2010. And it kind of fell to me to write the book."
New biography examines Costanza’s impact
Author Doreen Mattingly taught a class with Midge Costanza at San Diego State University.
Author Doreen Mattingly taught a class with Midge Costanza at San Diego State University.
John WilkensJohn WilkensContact Reporter
Doreen Mattingly is the author of “A Feminist in the White House,” a biography of Margaret “Midge” Costanza, who became in Jimmy Carter’s administration the first woman appointed an assistant to a U.S. president.
Costanza was the first female presidential assistant.
Costanza was the first female presidential assistant.
Costanza brought a passion for the underdog to her work, the book shows, but quickly became a lightning rod in the nation’s cultural storms over gender, sexual identity and “family values” and resigned after a year. She moved to San Diego County and was active in politics and government here for two decades before dying from cancer in 2010.
Mattingly is an associate professor of Women’s Studies at San Diego State, where she met Costanza in 2004 when they taught a class together called Sex, Power and Politics. She will be at Warwick’s Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
Q: How did this book come about?
A: She asked me to help her with her memoir. Ever since leaving the White House, she had been carrying around dozens of boxes of documents, intending to write it. I put her off for a number of years. I was at that time writing about women working in call centers in India, nothing like the Carter White House.
We stayed friends, and then she called me and said, “I’ve got cancer for the third time. The one thing I want to do is this book. Please help me.” And so I went, and she had the boxes in an office and we just started sorting them. At that time I was helping her with the historical, factual background that would go with her telling her story, and then she passed away very unexpectedly in 2010. And it kind of fell to me to write the book.
Q: Wading through all those boxes, what did you find most remarkable about her story?
A: That I didn’t already know it. I kept thinking, “I teach this. How do I not know this story already? How can a person be so erased?” I read all the books on the women’s movement of the time, and she was not a part of the way the history was written. That was the thing that probably gave me the most overall surprise and kept me moving.
Q: What did she consider her biggest success in the White House?
A: I think the meeting with the National Gay Task Force, probably because she was able to follow through and get things accomplished. She said at one point she wished she had done it later because it cost her so much political capital, but it definitely was an enormous success.
She brought so many everyday people into the White House to tell their stories and share them with President Carter. She did a huge series of meetings on what was called “wife beating” at the time, what we call domestic violence today, and brought in activists and survivors to talk to agency heads. She also brought in a number of women on welfare during welfare reform to talk about their experiences. I think on a deep, personal level, being the facilitator of those conversations probably meant the most to her.
Q: What do you think she would have considered her biggest disappointment?
A: That the Equal Rights Amendment (for women’s equality) wasn’t ratified and that Carter didn’t try hard publicly to use the White House to explain why it was important. I think she really felt like that was going to go differently.
Q: How do you think she wanted to be remembered?
A: Probably differently than I wrote about her.
Q: How so?
I think she wanted to leave a story that would inspire people to get involved in politics. She really believed in participatory democracy. From teaching with her, I can tell you she was a true believer in democracy and politics as a vehicle for improving people’s lives. I think that the story about her time in the White House is a little bit of a tragedy. She was marginalized. And I think that’s why she wasn’t able to write her memoirs, because she wanted it to be a tale of inspiration, and it was a little more tragic than that.
I have many drafts of chapters she wrote, and those were the things she couldn’t reconcile. She also loved Jimmy Carter and was disappointed by him and never could find a way to write that. How do you write about someone you still love and admire who you ended up campaigning against?
Q: Where did her idealism come from?
A: She got it listening to President Franklin Roosevelt on the radio. She was in a home where they didn’t speak English for the most part and where they didn’t follow American newspapers. They tried to survive. She didn’t have a political family. She fell in love with FDR in school when they listened to his talks on the radio.
After graduating from high school, she kind of floundered a bit, but she had all these social issues that were very real to her because of the neighborhood she was in. She got asked to participate in a Democratic fundraiser, and she came to believe that politics was a vehicle for improving the lives of the people that she cared about. I think it also became a place where she personally could have an impact.
Q: How did she retain her idealism over the years?
A: I think it became her identity. It became in a very fundamental way, especially as she moved up, what she had to bring to the table. She didn’t have any money. She didn’t have any family. She was a secretary. What she saw as integrity, believing in politics as something that could improve people’s lives, that became her identity. To walk away from that was to walk away from who she was.
Q: What do you think she would make of this year’s presidential election?
A: Well, I think it is for many of us thrilling and horrifying, and I think she would probably feel the same.
Q: In what ways?
Well, thrilling to see Hillary Clinton campaigning as a woman, to talk about motherhood as one of her qualifications for office. It’s very different than in 2008, when she downplayed her gender and downplayed women’s issues. I think for all of us who have been working on women’s issues for a long time, it’s just really thrilling.
And it’s horrifying that she’s in a close race with Donald Trump, who prides himself on objectifying women. I don’t remember an election when the gender politics were so stark.
QUOTED: "We don't learn about the anxiety Costanza must have felt as she concealed her relationships. Instead, this book is about her token status in the White House, and about how she and Carter negotiated the ferocity of the culture wars. It is political history, exceptionally readable and fascinating–but it is not a definitive, comprehensive biography of Midge Costanza, daughter, lover, and friend."
"Mattingly has resurrected an important figure in women's history and widened our view of feminists in politics. She has provided hundreds of stories and anecdotes that reveal Costanza's personality and behavior. Read A Feminist in the White House to learn about an extraordinary woman who witnessed the growth of the culture wars and the religious right from inside a presidential administration. But remember that a more personal story remains to be told."
Bringing the president to the people and the people to the president
Ruth Rosen
34.1 (January-February 2017): p13.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Old City Publishing, Inc.
http://www.wcwonline.org/womensreview
A Feminist in the White House: Midge Costanza, the Carter Years, and America's Culture Wars
By Doreen Mattingly
New York: Oxford University Press, 2016, 221 pp., $29.95, hardcover
Midge Costanza was always determined to tell the world her story, an inspiring but cautionary tale of her rise and fall as President Jimmy Carter's political liaison to women's organizations, minority groups, and the emergent lesbian and gay community. However, although she retrieved her papers from her 22 months in the White House, she was never able to face the daunting task of writing. Her story lay in cartons filled with receipts, memos, position papers, and a multitude of unfinished drafts. Years went by, her papers sheltered in storage, and people forgot about one of the twentieth century's most important women, an insider in the White House who witnessed the growth of the religious right and the opening salvos of the culture wars.
Fortunately, Doreen Mattingly, an associate professor of Women's Studies at San Diego State University, took up the challenge of writing a critical biography of this remarkable, once-famous woman. With the help of interns, Mattingly waded through piles of personal papers, roamed the nation in search of archival sources, and conducted extensive interviews with those who knew Costanza personally and professionally. Although Mattingly was acquainted with Costanza, the result is not a hagiography but rather a splendid, wholly engrossing biography that excavates Costanza's story and uses it to deepen our understanding of the tumultuous years in which she lived.
In her wildest dreams, Costanza never imagined she would work as a US president's personal liaison. Born into a working-class Italian-American family in Rochester, New York, she couldn't afford to attend college. Instead, she jumped into local politics, genuinely believing that government could improve people's lives. She rose through the ranks to become a councilwoman.
Short, witty, and charismatic, Costanza gained a national reputation. She was a wildly popular speaker who could run a political campaign, including her own, with sassy banter and earthy jokes. Those who met her described her as mesmerizing and unforgettable. Indeed, something clicked when Carter met her while campaigning in Rochester. A friendship was born, and their respect and affection for each other became well known.
In 1975, the country was sick of Richard Nixon's corruption and perjury. Americans welcomed the candidacy of Carter, the gentle peanut farmer from Georgia. He asked Costanza to second his nomination at the Democratic National Convention because of her reputation for honesty and integrity. When he appointed her his liaison, he told her, "Costanza, your job is to bring me to the people and the people to me." She later wrote,
That's what I did, [but] what he forgot to add
is "only the people I approve of and only the
issues that are comfortable." So I brought
them to the White House and I tried to keep
his commitment to the partnership with the
people. My error was that I believed him.
For the most part, Carter and Costanza enjoyed a warm and collegial relationship. But Carter did not arrive at the nation's capital alone. With him came the so-called Georgia Mafia, a group of loyal male assistants and analysts who annoyed mainstream politicians, thought Costanza was irritating and shrewish, and viewed the social justice projects she cared about as irrelevant. In short, Carter's cabal was far more conservative than the president they served.
Although Costanza had never been part of the grassroots women's movement, her friendships and connections with such well-known figures as Betty Friedan, Bella Abzug, and Gloria Steinem profoundly influenced her political views. Carter and Costanza increasingly clashed about how the administration should deal with the women's movement. "While Carter focused on eliminating barriers to competing equally with men," writes Mattingly, "most feminists wanted a more proactive support to improve the position of women."
The women's movement had originated within a culture of protest, and feminists were not used to working within the system. Costanza, moreover, was stubborn, and not one to take orders. Carter had campaigned for women's rights, but as a born-again Christian, he also wanted to reach out to evangelical voters. So, while he competed for the votes of the evangelical and antichoice voters, Costanza was to satisfy the liberal wing of the party. It was a strategy doomed to failure.
When Costanza held a meeting with members of the National Gay Task Force (NGTF, now the National LGBTQ Task Force) in the White House, the Georgia Mafia was appalled. However, in Costanza's view, "When anybody's rights are threatened, nobody's rights are secure." The day after the meeting, Anita Bryant, a former beauty queen who had become an outspoken critic of gay and lesbian rights, issued a statement saying, "I protest the action of the White House staff in dignifying these activists for special privileges of their alleged 'human rights.'" "Midge Costanza had become a symbol of liberal hopes and conservative fears," writes Mattingly.
Sometimes Carter allowed her to push him beyond his comfort zone. She convinced him, for example, to issue a proclamation that officially made August 26, the anniversary of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment that gave women the right to vote, Women's Equality Day. She insisted that he reaffirm his support for the Equal Rights Amendment and women's constitutional right to choose an abortion, even though he didn't want to publicly promote these liberal causes. She refused to follow his political agenda.
A fundamental conflict between Carter and Costanza was that he wanted to downsize the government, while the women's movement sought greater spending for causes such as helping displaced homemakers and battered women. In 1977, the federal government provided funding for the National Women's Conference in Houston--infuriating the religious right. Although Carter refused to attend, he allowed his wife Rosalyn to join the other First Ladies who conferred legitimacy on the event. Behind the scenes, Costanza turned the conference into a historic gathering of women from around the nation. The 2,000 delegates emerged with a radical Plan of Action. "Margaret Mead," writes Mattingly, "pronounced it a turning point not only in the history of women's movement but in the history of the world."
Carter wanted a token, and he did not want to spend any political capital in support of feminist issues. Costanza's resignation became inevitable. First, her office was moved to the basement. She was stripped of her staff and prohibited from working on anything but women's issues. In August 1978, she refused to cancel a television interview. Although Carter never asked for her resignation, she knew she had gone too far. When she gave him her resignation letter, she recalled, "I handed it to him and tears started to come down his face." He still adored her, and the feeling was mutual. But as the columnist Molly Ivins, never one to mince words, commented, "Costanza was given an impossible job to begin with and left to twist slowly in the wind by the president's men. "Although Carter had campaigned, in part, on women's issues, the index to his memoir of his years in the White House, Keeping Faith: Memoirs of a President (1982), does not even include the words "women," "feminism," "abortion," or "ERA."
Mattingly has written such a compelling and fascinating biography that most readers will want to know more about Costanza's personal life. In her notes for her memoir, Costanza had written,
I have attempted to keep my family life and
my personal life separate from my public life.
Since neither my family life nor my personal
life has had an impact on what I did in my
public life.... I wish to keep it that way.
For the most part, Mattingly has honored that wish--a questionable judgment for the biographer of a feminist, although perhaps she simply could not find more information about Costanza's personal life. Her extensive interviews already reveal more than Costanza might have wanted. We learn, for example, how Costanza used humor to deflect political attacks, and how she sometimes yelled at her staff. One staff member said, "She was given to screaming, shouting, papers strewn, all over the office, immense disorganization." Clearly, Costanza's plate was too full, and she and her staff could not accomplish everything liberals expected from her. Still, her colleagues adored and trusted her, and her charismatic personality made her a significant presence both within and outside of the White House.
Although Mattingly has chosen to focus mainly on Costanza's political life, her personal experience clearly had an enormous impact on her politics. For example, she had three abortions. During the second, the provider raped her, leading to a pregnancy and a third abortion.
Costanza also had two important, secret romantic relationships, the first with her married boss in Rochester, John Petrossi, which kept her from attending many political events. We know only the fact of the relationship, however; we don't learn how she managed to keep it alive yet hidden. The second was with Jean O'Leary, the co-executive director of the National Gay Task Force. Costanza kept that relationship secret too, which made her efforts to promote the rights of lesbians and gays exceedingly complicated. Costanza's partner during the 1990s, Kathleen Martin, felt that Costanza did not identify as a lesbian. Was she genuinely confused--or did she believe she could be more effective if she stayed in the closet? We don't know. What is clear is that she paid a great personal cost as she hid her emotional life behind her public persona.
But this biography is not about those personal costs; we don't learn about the anxiety Costanza must have felt as she concealed her relationships. Instead, this book is about her token status in the White House, and about how she and Carter negotiated the ferocity of the culture wars. It is political history, exceptionally readable and fascinating--but it is not a definitive, comprehensive biography of Midge Costanza, daughter, lover, and friend.
Mattingly has resurrected an important figure in women's history and widened our view of feminists in politics. She has provided hundreds of stories and anecdotes that reveal Costanza's personality and behavior. Read A Feminist in the White House to learn about an extraordinary woman who witnessed the growth of the culture wars and the religious right from inside a presidential administration. But remember that a more personal story remains to be told.
Ruth Rosen, professor emerita of history at the University of California, Davis, is a research scholar at the Institute for Social Change at the University of California, Berkeley and the author of The World Split Open: How The Modem Women's Movement Changed America (2006).
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Rosen, Ruth. "Bringing the president to the people and the people to the president." The Women's Review of Books, Jan.-Feb. 2017, p. 13+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA478697158&it=r&asid=52533231500d26b947a4ed17e8ff5c7b. Accessed 5 Feb. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A478697158
QUOTED: "readers interested in early women's movement issues, the Carter administration's record on women's issues, and women in politics."
Mattingly, Doreen. A Feminist in the White House: Midge Costanza, the Carter Years, and America's Culture Wars
Jill Ortner
141.10 (June 1, 2016): p111.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
Mattingly, Doreen. A Feminist in the White House: Midge Costanza, the Carter Years, and America's Culture Wars. Oxford Univ. Jun. 2016.328p. photos, notes, bibliog. index. ISBN 9780190468606. $29.95. POL SCI
When feminist Midge Costanza was appointed the first female assistant to the president for the Office of Public Liaison by Jimmy Carter, she broke an important glass ceiling. Twenty months later, frustrated and marginalized by more traditional White House staff, Costanza resigned from her position. Mattingly (women's studies, San Diego State Univ.) traces Costanza's successes and conflicts in those months to explain what went wrong. She provides an in-depth look at the Carter administration's mixed messages about the women's movement and reveals the philosophical differences being worked out within the movement itself. Mattingly believes that the main difference between Carter and Costanza centered on their separate interpretations of an "open" White House, a condition Carter promised during the campaign in response to American disgust in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal. Costanza saw the vow to mean inclusion of marginalized groups in decision-making, while Carter was committed to making his own decisions transparently in a rational, efficient manner. The author shows that at times Costanza was her own worst enemy by openly speaking for positions that were not supported by Carter. VERDICT Readers interested in early women's movement issues, the Carter administration's record on women's issues, and women in politics will appreciate this book.--Jill Ortner, SUNY Buffalo Libs.
Ortner, Jill
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Ortner, Jill. "Mattingly, Doreen. A Feminist in the White House: Midge Costanza, the Carter Years, and America's Culture Wars." Library Journal, 1 June 2016, p. 111. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA453919966&it=r&asid=ed7f9a7a23b772f6036b468507da8e5f. Accessed 5 Feb. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A453919966
QUOTED: "The biography is a fascinating and thorough look at the way second-wave feminism played out in the political arena, and highly relevant."
A Feminist in the White House: Midge Costanza, the Carter Years, and America's Culture Wars
263.14 (Apr. 4, 2016): p70.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
A Feminist in the White House: Midge Costanza, the Carter Years, and America's Culture Wars
Doreen Mattingly. Oxford Unlv., $29.95
(304p) ISBN 978-0-19-046860-6
Mattingly chronicles the political career of her friend and former colleague Midge Costanza, a liberal feminist who became assistant to the president for public liaison under President Jimmy Carter--at the time, the highest position a woman had ever held in the White House. Described by Mattingly as tiny, stubborn, and loud-mouthed, Costanza was born to the working-class owners of a sausage factory in Rochester, N.Y., and used flirtation and a self-deprecating sense of humor in order to navigate the sexist world of 1970s politics. Her political appointment was loaded with symbolism and expectations: special interest groups counted on her to fight for their interests, and liberals took it as a sign of Carter's commitment to social justice and women's equality. But when Carter turned out to be less invested in women's rights than Costanza had initially been led to believe, their partnership grew tense, leading to her eventual resignation. Mattingly provides an overwhelming amount of detail; the endless names and acronyms are difficult to keep track of and can prove daunting for readers who aren't political junkies. Luckily, bouts of dry narration are broken up by colorful quotations from Costanza herself (she once said about her Thanksgiving birthday, "My father always told me that what they really wanted was a turkey, and they got me instead. There are those who would say they got both"). The biography is a fascinating and thorough look at the way second-wave feminism played out in the political arena, and highly relevant at this particular political moment. (June)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"A Feminist in the White House: Midge Costanza, the Carter Years, and America's Culture Wars." Publishers Weekly, 4 Apr. 2016, p. 70+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA448902724&it=r&asid=402ed6d382de1d58f46ea23dea018cda. Accessed 5 Feb. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A448902724
Women and change at the U.S.-Mexico border; mobility, labor, and activism
22.1 (Feb. 2007):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2007 Ringgold, Inc.
http://www.ringgold.com/
9780816525287
Women and change at the U.S.-Mexico border; mobility, labor, and activism.
Ed. by Doreen J. Mattingly and Ellen R. Hansen.
U. of Arizona Press
2006
231 pages
$45.00
Hardcover
HQ1464
Social scientists from both sides of the border describe how women in the region are responding to changes in the three spheres by making their own. Among their topics are the gendered consequences of migration for Mexican indigenous women, the roots of autonomy through work participation in northern Mexico, and non-government organizations and political participation in Baja California.
([c]20072005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Women and change at the U.S.-Mexico border; mobility, labor, and activism." Reference & Research Book News, Feb. 2007. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA159046274&it=r&asid=49b0c7d51651b2512f5d405018430f99. Accessed 5 Feb. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A159046274
QUOTED: "A timely complement to the growing body of scholarship on gender and border culture."
"The original research presented in these articles provides a wealth of ethnographic, descriptive, and empirical data on how women's everyday lives are impacted by the experience of living in the borderlands. In general, the articles are well written and should be accessible to most audiences."
Women and change at the US-Mexico border: mobility, labor, and activism
Ruth Brown
26.2 (June 2009): p248.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2009 JCG Press
http://www.geog.okstate.edu/users/culture/culture.htm
Women and change at the US-Mexico border: mobility, labor, and activism, edited by Doreen J. Mattingly and Ellen R. Hansen, Tucson, University of Arizona Press, 2008, i + 231 pp. US$24.95 (paperback), ISBN 978-0-8165-2746-5
A timely complement to the growing body of scholarship on gender and border culture, Women and Change at the US-Mexico Border examines the relationship between women's individual and collective action and the external forces of the border that shape their lives. While the 12 contributors to this volume represent a variety of academic disciplines, their articles share a common concern with the production of women's agency in the US-Mexico border region. The original research presented in these articles provides a wealth of ethnographic, descriptive, and empirical data on how women's everyday lives are impacted by the experience of living in the borderlands. In general, the articles are well written and should be accessible to most audiences.
Following the first chapter, which provides a concise introduction to border history and scholarship and a political map of the borderlands, Women and Change is divided into three sections reflecting the themes identified in the subtitle. The connection between women's agency and the geography of the border is particularly well documented in Part One: Women's Mobility. The articles in this section demonstrate the ways in which women's physical movements challenge traditions and provide for certain autonomies by examining mobility for the purposes of migration, daily life, and access to reproductive services. Part Two: Labor and Empowerment in the Border Region questions the degree to which employment in the maquiladora and domestic service industries influences women's autonomy. These articles highlight the tension between globalization and social reproduction, ultimately arguing that women are active agents whose presence in the workforce has changed the nature of social reproduction in the borderlands. Part Three: Activist Women Changing the Border examines the role of NGOs and transnational organizations in relation to local community activist movements. The four articles of this section argue that border activism has emerged as a response to the failure of the neoliberal state to provide for the social welfare of its citizens.
The focus on women's agency that is central to all the articles of this volume is but one way that Women and Change enters into dialogue with the larger body of feminist scholarship on the border. An activist research approach and spirit of collaboration marks all the articles in this project. The volume clearly situates itself in relation to previous scholarly work on the subject by providing excellent contextualization and citation of pertinent border research throughout the articles and in a common bibliography at the end. Ellen Hansen's article "Women's Daily Mobility at the US-Mexico Border" provides one of the better examples of this collaborative spirit at work by placing her own research, which includes interviews with women in Agua Prieta, Sonora, and Douglas, Arizona, in dialogue with that of other scholars who have examined women's mobility in larger metropolitan areas. Hansen, like many of the contributors to Women and Change, discusses some of the limitations of previous academic work in the field of gender and border studies and calls for further investigation into the gendered effects of post 9/11 border security policies.
Irasema Coronado's lament that "most research about community activism in northern Mexico is in English only, including my own work" (p. 158) may signal one of the failings of this volume. While the contributors to Women and Change represent a bi-national and bi-cultural group of accomplished academics, the volume largely glosses over the role of lay community activists while privileging that of NGOs and academics. One group of activists is notably absent from this volume. The promotoras, as the women community activists who have organized extensively on both sides of the border call themselves, are not mentioned in any article. I was particularly surprised to not find a discussion of the promotora movement in Rebecca Dolhinow's article "Activism in New Mexico Colonias." Instead, such women are simply referred to as "community leaders." It seems that Women and Change would have been the perfect forum for acknowledging the important work of this still understudied activist movement.
Ruth Brown
University of Kentucky
Email: ruth.brown@uky.edu
[C] 2009, Ruth Brown
DOI: 10.1080/08873630903037555
Brown, Ruth
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Brown, Ruth. "Women and change at the US-Mexico border: mobility, labor, and activism." Journal of Cultural Geography, vol. 26, no. 2, 2009, p. 248+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA208110363&it=r&asid=ae013d068198c8b4c2b00a426e19f730. Accessed 5 Feb. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A208110363