One by one, phenomenal African American women are breaking through the glass ceiling of race and gender bias. Setting political agendas, heading major institutions, and shaping corporate strategies, they are the newest architects of America's future. Sister Power is packed with groundbreaking insight into their amazing life journeys.

How have they come so far? What defines and sustains them? During in-depth interviews with more than forty-five black female CEOs, legislators, and senior executives, Patricia Reid-Merritt searched for answers. In this illuminating, provocative book, she reveals the essential characteristics she found.

The voices of U.S. Representative Maxine Waters, Ms. magazine editor-in-chief Marcia Gillespie, former PUSH president the Reverend Willie Barrow, and many other courageous and innovative leaders resonate throughout, offering definitive lessons and eye-opening details about their careers and private lives.

Sister Power explores the critical stages and issues of their lives: how they developed in childhood, their experiences once they left the nurturing black community, their professional rise, challenges to their positions, and their struggle for personal happiness.