Dear Madam President: An Open Letter to the Women Who Will Run the World

Palmieri writes an open letter to future female leaders, and she does so with honesty. The scope of the book is not limited to women, and that is the point. With a title as potentially ostracizing as Dear Madam President, Palmieri makes a point. She says, first, this book is for the next female president. Second, it can be any of the women grazing their eyes across the title and turning each page. And third, she offers a dare. She challenges her male audience to attempt to understand the place of the female in the modern world, the small idiosyncrasies we deal with on a daily basis. And she asks them to continue to read, to try to understand.

For this letter to the first woman who will sit in the Oval Office, Palmieri opens her personal narrative to the public to understand her experience. She engages the audience with anecdotes of her time with Clinton, Obama, her dying sister, and her friends. I might add the book comes from a liberal view on politics, but any reader should hopefully be able to set aside party and look at the narrative she shares.

I read this book in a three-hour sitting. The book was a quick bite. My main issue comes from the way in which she stated the advice. While the “takeaways” or motivational sayings are good and meaningful, they come across as just that and fall a little flat for me. I wish she had spent more time on singular stories, blips in her narrative on the campaign trail, in the White House, and with her sisters. I enjoyed each story and craved to know her experience inside and out. The stories are what made the book succeed in my eyes.

All in all, Palmieri delivers a compact and heartfelt open letter to the first female president, which inspires, encourages, and challenges her as she enters this role. But not just that, she crafts a statement about women in leadership, in the workplace, and in daily life applicable to anyone, not only our first female president.