Suzanne O’Dea, Ph.D.

Suzanne O’Dea read Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique in 1964, the year after it was published and the year she turned 14. Since then, women’s equality, women’s pursuit of power–social, economic, and political—has held central role in her work as a volunteer and a scholar. She was a leader in three political campaigns to pass an Equal Rights Amendment in Iowa: 1980, 1992, and finally the successful campaign in 1998. As a graduate student at Iowa State University, she centered her research on American women in politics, publishing five titles on the topic (listed below).

Now, Suzanne takes her research and writing skills to another area of women’s lives: their relationships with God. Specifically, she considers Images of God.

A native of Iowa, Suzanne now lives in northern California—not the northern California of the San Francisco area, but about 280 miles north of the city. On a clear day she can see the Pacific Ocean from her office window and the redwood forest from her bedroom window. And, of course, she has two cats, gardens, bakes great bread, and crochets—clichés, true, but clichés.

Her children (both in their 30s) teach her about life and living in ways that bring great joy to her life. She expresses her gratitude to them for their wisdom and courage.

Suzanne’s Published Works

Legislators & Politicians: Iowa’s Women Lawmakers, 1995.

From Suffrage to the Senate Set: An Encyclopedia of American Women in Politics, 2000.

From Suffrage to the Senate: America’s Political Women: An Encyclopedia of Leaders, Causes & Issues, 2006.

Madam Chairman: Mary Louise Smith and the Republican Revival after Watergate, 2012.

From Suffrage to the Senate: America’s Political Women: an Encyclopedia of Leaders, Causes & Issues, 2013