Valerie M. Hudson is a University Distinguished Professor and holds the George H. W. Bush Chair in the Department of International Affairs of the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University, where she directs the Program on Women, Peace, and Security. She is a coauthor of Sex and World Peace (Columbia, 2012) and The Hillary Doctrine: Sex and American Foreign Policy (Columbia, 2015), among others. Donna Lee Bowen is professor emerita of political science and Middle East studies at Brigham Young University. Her publications include Everyday Life in the Muslim Middle East (third edition, 2014). Perpetua Lynne Nielsen is professor of statistics at Brigham Young University.
In The First Political Order, Hudson and her collaborators make the case that the subordination of women is irrefutably tied to the wellbeing of a nation. Skeptical? The hard data is here, drawn from an exhaustive survey of 176 countries in the WomanStats project. This is the definitive work that ends the debate about the consequences of gender inequality. The focus now must shift to how we address a global syndrome that threatens us all. -- Ryan Crocker, former US ambassador to Afghanistan The First Political Order offers the strongest possible proof that male control of reproduction-and the violence necessary to control women's bodies-is the first step in normalizing violence and hierarchy in every society. From now on, there will be no more separating questions of politics and peace from the treatment of the females. Those days are over. Thanks to Valerie Hudson and her team of global researchers, we have a long, practical, intimate way of diminishing violence and increasing democracy. -- Gloria Steinem