"Cracking the Highest Glass Ceiling is both global and systematic in its comparison of gender in election campaigns for executive office. High-quality contributions by leading scholars converge around common themes including gender stereotypes, news media coverage, and women's strategies regarding gender in the campaign and implications for election outcomes. Combining expert knowledge and systematic analysis of national campaigns with comparative insights, this volume breaks new ground on this important and cutting-edge topic and builds a solid framework for future research."---Miki Caul Kittilson, PhD Associate Professor, School of Politics and Global Studies, Arizona State University<BR><BR>"Cracking the Highest Glass Ceiling is the first major work to examine why women candidates for executive office have been successful in some countries but not others. With top scholars and elegant methodology, it makes a unique and foundational contribution to the literature. This edited volume will be widely read by scholars and students alike."---Caroline Heldman Associate Professor, Occidental College, and coeditor of Rethinking Madam President: Are We Ready for a Woman in the White House?<BR><BR>In recent years, more and more high-profile women candidates have been running for executive office in democracies all around the world. Cracking the Highest Glass Ceiling: A Global Comparison of Women's Campaigns for Executive Office is the first study to undertake an international comparison of women's campaigns for highest office and to identify the commonalities among them. For example, women candidates often begin as front-runners as the idea of a woman president captures the public imagination, followed by a decline in popularity as stereotypes and gendered media coverage kick in to erode the woman's perceived credibility as a national leader. On the basis of nine international case studies of recent campaigns written by thirteen country specialists, the volume develops an overarching framework which explores how gender stereotypes shape the course and outcome of women's campaigns in the male-dominated worlds of executive elections in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Australia. This comparative approach allows the authors to discriminate between the contingent effects of a particular candidate or national culture and the universal operation of gender stereotyping. Case studies include the campaigns for executive office of Hillary Rodham Clinton (United States, 2008), Sarah Palin (United States, 2008), Angela Merkel (Germany, 2005 and 2009), Segolene Royal (France, 2007), Helen Clark (New Zealand, 1996-2008), Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (Argentina, 2007), Michelle Bachelet (Chile, 2006), Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (Liberia, 2005), and Irene Saez (Venezuela, 1998).