This is a case study of the National Organization for Women that explains how NOW's governance structure shaped the organization's strategy from 1966 to 2003. “Strategy” is defined as NOW's “goals and tactics it uses to pursue them” (p. 2). The author contends that current conceptual approaches to explaining organizational behavior, such as the availability of resources, or political opportunities, or “collective belief systems,” can fall short in their predictive powers. There are times, for example, when organizations appear to be irrational and self-destructive as they ignore “obvious political opportunities” or invest “resources inefficiently” (p. 6). Analyzing organizational behavior from the perspective of its “governance structure” or “political system,” however, “resolves many of these apparent inconsistencies” (p. 6). Governance structure is “simply a political system described by a group's guiding principles (its goals and values) on the one hand and its formal decision-making process on the other” (p. 1).

According to Maryann Barakso, this approach, too long neglected by scholars, explains NOW's long-term deference to its grassroots base, its commitment to a feminist left-of-center multiissue agenda and tactics (irrespective of scarce resources or receptivity of political climate). During its early history, the organization recruited from the consciousness-raising groups of the women's liberation movement. These “true believers” of feminist principles believed in grassroots empowerment and upheld an “anti-elitist ethic” (p. 28). Most important, they succeeded in bringing about a governance structure at NOW that was not only “highly representative and participatory” but also dedicated to the organization's “guiding principles (goals and values).” These goals and values are embedded in the following five statements or principles: “1) to remain in the vanguard of the women's movement; 2) to be an activist rather than an educational group; 3) to maintain political independence from governmental and political institutions; 4) to focus on a diverse set of issues and tactics; and 5) to mobilize activists at the grass roots” (p. 2).

As guardians of these guiding principles, the rank and file manipulate the highly democratic processes of the organization's decision-making structure. This explains the seemingly irrational decision by the national leadership to push for not one but several causes (the equal rights amendment, lesbian and abortion rights) during NOW's start-up years (between 1966 and 1971) when resources were scarce and the organization was relatively obscure.

Of course, this is not without the tensions associated with keeping the leadership in line, or at the very least, “sensitive” to the concerns of the rank and file. When NOW's president, Eleanor Smeal, made ratification of the ERA top priority and declared a “State of Emergency,” for example, many members were uneasy with the creation of a political action committee for ousting recalcitrant state legislators in unratified states in the 1974 elections (p. 69). Smacking too much of establishment politics, such tactics, some feared, could undermine the guiding principles of the organization in terms of NOW's commitment to grassroots activism, to being the vanguard of feminism, and to being an outsider to establishment politics. Accordingly, the national organization went to great pains to reassure the members that this was purely a temporary device and would be dissolved after the ERA campaign was concluded. The members were also informed that the governance structure of such a committee would mirror that of NOW (p. 64).

In terms of the book's organization, the author devotes two chapters on the formation of this governance structure, which produced a left-of-center bias in both issue choices and use of political tactics. The four subsequent chapters cover the history of NOW and the impact of its governance structure on the leaderships' agenda and policy positions. Each chapter covers one of four major periods, namely, 1966–71, 1972–78, 1978–82, and 1983–2003.

One important strength of this work (that builds on other studies) is the manner in which the author shows how representation and participation in the organization's democratic processes by the rank and file strengthens our own democracy through their newly acquired civic skills and education. These are transferable to other settings (in other organizations or public forums) involving deliberation and decision making, yet the author did not explore the ironies of this. Acknowledging the constraints of a case study, one may speculate, for example, that using these skills in public forums may actually weaken the ideological resolve of the doctrinaire rank and file as they gain entry (through their skills) into the pragmatic and compromise-oriented milieu of the political establishment.

Another important finding of this case study is the paradox of having an interest group organization that is internally very democratic but externally politically weak. Really, it is the left-of-center ideology that constrains the leadership through the governance structure. This retains the core loyalists but does not build up the membership and subsequent resources.

Last but not least, defining certain key concepts would have greatly sharpened the clarity of her arguments and anchored the work. For example, the power distribution of the NOW organization is not clearly enunciated and categorized. Is it a confederative design, or what? Moreover, in the introduction, the term governance is described but not defined. The same can be said for political system. Equally important, the author does not make it clear at the outset whether NOW is categorized as a social movement organization (SMO) or an interest group. On page 51, it would appear that she is saying that by 1972, NOW had evolved from an SMO to an interest group, but she does this without making any attempt at drawing a distinction. Finally, the five critical guiding principles (goals and values) of the organization are not defined and elaborated upon. This would have been very helpful to the reader since they drive the four chapters on NOW's strategic history.