Madam President

Madam President. A woman in charge. What does it mean to have a woman in charge and what are the consequences? Some of the roles are expected. Nobody explores this better than David Gerrold in his groundbreaking work, War Zone, as he shows what a Madam President brings to the table that gives her an edge in an emerging terrorist attack. K. G. Anderson has a new and unexpected twist on a woman coming to power in the Oval Office. Larry Hodges takes us down the rabbit hole, while Manny Frishberg and Edd Vick sit us down for an unusual fireside chat. Other roles may not seem like positions of power until a woman takes charge, and we can see the process. Yvonne Lang tells of what might happen when aliens attack a stuffy suburb, and the head of the homeowner’s association must lead her neighbors in fending off the invasion. In The Queen Bee, Janka Hobbs traces the journey from meek nonentity to a position of power via a book club, and Gustavo Bondoni reveals the enormous difference a woman can make in a society that does not value the contribution of women. Darcy Lee, in her superb poem So It Began in Every Woman, shows the process of a woman, every woman, gaining personal power. Sometimes, the power is over only a small sphere, but it is vital to the people involved. A woman uses her compassion and empathy to attempt to avoid a tragedy like the one she herself had lived through. A sense of fairness leads another to help her opponent in a hotly contested school board race just because it’s the right thing to do. Other stories defy a quick description. Patrick Swenson profiles a woman who has been deposed from her rightful position and must fight back. India’s Soumya Sundar Mukherjee relates the climactic moment when a woman must determine what kind of ruler she will be. Award winning British writer Liam Hogan shows how a teaspoon can be an instrument of power in the right hands, and Lewis Evans explores the revolutionary power of one woman who sees things in a different way. And the Spider Queen? Well, it’s always safer to just let the Spider Queen speak for herself.