Capitol Women: Texas Female Legislators, 1923-1999.

By Nancy Baker Jones and Ruthe Winegarten. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2000. Pp. [xvi], 328. Paper, $22.95, ISBN 0-292-74063-8; cloth, $45.00, ISBN 0-292-74062-X.)

This is a well-written, carefully researched biographical compendium of the eighty-six women who served in the Texas legislature during the years 1923-1999. Nancy Baker Jones and Ruthe Winegarten, who are recognized historians with earlier, impressive works on women in Texas, have carefully traced the legislative struggles and political challenges met and overcome by this diverse group of female lawmakers.

Using archival sources, oral history interviews, and photographs, the authors provide not only detailed information on the women's legislative careers but also new perspectives on their personal lives and the issues they championed. There are fifty-eight biographies, chronologically arranged, and twenty-eight shorter "snapshots" of women elected in or after 1991.

The authors present lengthy profiles of such well-known figures as Frances Tarlton (Sissy) Farenthold, who served two terms as the only woman in the House (1969-1973) before running unsuccessfully for governor; Sarah Ragle Weddington, a state representative who had previously argued Roe v. Wade before the U.S. Supreme Court; Kay Bailey Hutchison, the first Republican woman elected to the Texas House, who is now a U.S. senator; Senfronia Paige Thompson, the longest serving woman in the House (1973-present); Eddie Bernice Johnson, the first African American woman elected from Dallas to the Texas House and then to the Texas Senate, and who is now a U.S. congresswoman; and Barbara Charline Jordan, who became Texas's first African American woman legislator when she was elected to the state senate in 1966 and who later served three distinguished terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. Jones and Winegarten also recount the achievements of lesser-known but important women legislators: Sarah Tilghman Hughes (House, 1931-1935); Wilhemina F. Delco (House, 1975-1995); Irma Rangel (House, 1977-present); Judith P. Zaffirini (Senate, 1987-present); and Ernestine V. Glossbrenner (House, 1977-1993).

In four introductory essays the authors explore the "gendered dynamic" (p. 10) of the historically male-dominated Texas legislature and the strategies women have used to overcome obstacles in order to achieve passage of significant legislation in the areas of equal rights, education, public health, and economic reform. An excellent historical overview traces how Texas women became involved in party politics as candidates and how they have influenced state government during the past eighty years. There is also a helpful essay on "How the Texas Legislature Works," as well as several informative appendixes containing codified statistical information on the women legislators.

This volume is an impressive achievement. It is a readable historical synthesis and a comprehensive reference work that will be very useful to scholars and general readers alike.

DOROTHY D. DEMOSS
Texas Woman's University