Bianca Rowlett tells us about Jeane Kirkpatrick, the first woman to serve as US Ambassador to the United Nations under Reagan’s administration.

Jeane Kirkpatrick was a very controversial figure and is known for the Kirkpatrick Doctrine that justified supporting authoritarian right wing regimes and dictatorships as long they were anticommunist. She started as a democrat and then became a neoconservative.

The effects of this approach to foreign policy had a major impact on Central America.

We talk about how Jeane Kirkpatrick believed there should be more women in politics, her emphasis on gradual change, and how fragile democracy is.

You can read Bianca’s essay and other great essays in the book “Suffrage at 100: Women in American Politics since 1920”.