What's in your purse?
"Of politics, purses, and practicality in Congress" by Ashley Parker | New York Times, June 02, 2013
WASHINGTON —The Congress of yore might conjure images of spittoons and old male politicians with briefcases, but the 113th has ushered in a historic number of women — 20 in the Senate, and 81 in the House — and with them a historic number of handbags. In some ways, the female legislator’s purse or bag has become one of the most outwardly physical manifestations of the nation’s changing deliberative body....
Tracy Sefl, a Democratic strategist, said, “They serve a purpose and — intentionally or not — they make a statement.”
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Margaret Thatcher, the first female prime minister of Britain, wielded her handbag like a cudgel, a potent mix of femininity and her famed iron will.
To be “handbagged” by Thatcher even became a verb, well known to rivals, journalists, and political bumblers alike who all found themselves ruthlessly dismissed by her when they displeased her....
Related: Thatcher's Patch
Urinate on it.
But for many female politicians, a purse was seen as more of a nuisance and even a possible sign of weakness; Geraldine A. Ferraro, the first female vice-presidential nominee for a major political party, garnered attention for merely handing her pocketbook to an aide before she took the podium.
But Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has been much scrutinized over the years for her pantsuits and her changing hairstyles, professed her love of a great handbag in a 2011 interview with Harper’s Bazaar....
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Globe didn't tell me what kind of bag Liz Warren had.
