It’s been a good year for women’s memoirs — Netflix turned former First Lady Michelle Obama’s bestselling memoir, “Becoming,” into a documentary; World Cup champion and Seattle Reign FC player Megan Rapinoe released her memoir, “One Life,” about her fight for social justice, equal pay for female athletes and LGBTQ rights; and former United States Secretary of State and seven-time New York Times bestselling author Madeleine Albright reminisced on her decades-long career in her newly released memoir, “Hell and Other Destinations.”
But what happens when you’re a woman with a story to tell but no national or international name recognition to back it up?
That was the predicament Sandra Smith Gangle, of Camas, found herself facing last year.
“When you write a book, and you’re not Michelle Obama, you can’t get that book published,” Gangle said.
Not that Gangle, Oregon’s first female labor arbitrator — who didn’t even attend law school until well into her 30s — would let a small roadblock like that stand in her way.
Instead, Gangle relied on her own ingenuity and worked with Luminare Press, a professional self-publishing company based in Eugene, Oregon, to release her book, “Madam Arbitrator: Working Toward Social Equality and Employment Justice,” in mid-March.