Article

Gender, Politics, and The Public Library: How Polarization and Feminization Conspired to Destabilize One of “The Most Trusted Professions” 

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Abstract

On January 24th, 2025, not one week into the new administration the United States Department of Education Office of Civil rights issued a statement that it was dismissing all investigations related to book bans, calling the investigations a “hoax.” The Trump nominated Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, Craig Trainor described this is as “restoring the fundamental rights of parents to direct their children’s education,” which is the fullest expression so far that we have seen in the public sphere of the rhetorical dominance of ideas like “parent’s rights” being weaponized to subvert information access and undermine libraries across the country (U.S. Department of Education Ends Biden’s Book Ban Hoax | U.S. Department of Education, 2025, Jennings-Roche, 2023). While this is very obviously just the opening salvo in wide scale dismantling of civil rights protections for librarians, teachers, and the communities they serve—a reckoning within the library world is long overdue. Neutrality, or half-hearted approximations of it, has never been an effective advocacy strategy nor has it ever reflected the true work being done by librarians across the country. By ignoring the shifting political contexts outside our library doors while underpreparing library workers for the reality of community-engaged work, librarianship, writ large has not only failed to meet the moment but allowed neo-liberal and reactionary political forces to openly undermine the public’s trust in libraries for decades with little resistance (Jaeger & Sarin, 2016; Durney, 2023). The “self-imposed voicelessness of libraries” has long been highlighted by a small subsection of LIS scholars and roundly ignored by our larger organizations in favor of comfortable, often “cute” branding campaigns that assert value while failing to demonstrate the material or political value of our institutions in the minds of those who set policy agendas (Jaeger et al., 2013, p. 372). Much like the valorization of all other types of “women’s work” in the public sphere (to loosely quote EveryLibrary’s John Chrastka): everyone loves libraries, but no one cares.

Keywords: gender, public library, LIS, politics, book bans

How to Cite:

Jennings-Roche, A., (2025) “Gender, Politics, and The Public Library: How Polarization and Feminization Conspired to Destabilize One of “The Most Trusted Professions” ”, The Political Librarian 8(Special Edition). doi: https://doi.org/10.7936/pollib.9017