The Story

In a enlightening mix of interviews and narrative, Running in High Heels endeavors to explain how women can be the majority of the population at fifty-two percent but remain a minority in the sphere of political power. 

Before there was Sarah Palin, there was Emily Csendes, a local State Senate candidate of questionable qualifications campaigning for office in “Running in High Heels.”   As a Republican running a small time campaign in big league Democratic territory, Emily provides interest for everyone no matter what side of the political spectrum one may be on.    With her politically tone-deaf campaign manager, Stephen, glued to her hip at all times, Emily embarks on a journey alternately humorous and exasperating.   

She begins her story in confident shape, proudly proclaiming that hers is the most well run campaign in Manhattan and bragging about her long hair, “Hair is like money.  You can never have too much.”     Hitting the streets to court voters, Emily is grilled and questioned by tough New Yorkers with whom she struggles to connect in between long days of teaching math at a Bronx high school.    Confused but determined, she switches tactics and focuses her campaign solely on preparation for a live television debate and cuts her long hair and revises her wardrobe.   

Still, without any true raison d’etre, she fails to get the key endorsement of her fellow Republican, New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, and fails to get the endorsement of her own union, the American Federation of Teachers.  

Intercut with Emily’s story are interviews and commentary by notable women from the right and left of America’s political spectrum, ranging from Phyllis Schlafly to Rosalind Wiseman, whose work on the psychological warfare and unwritten social rules with which girls (and women) deal is the basis for the movie “Mean Girls”.   Through their debates they illustrate the controversy between what women say they want and the contradictions of what they act on.    

Ultimately, as Emily is done in by her own lack of self-knowledge, these interviews provide an interesting counterpoint on the state of political values and  self-awareness of women in America.

Interview subjects include:

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