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Equal: Women Reshape American Law
The dramatic, untold story of how women battled blatant inequities in America's legal system.
As late as 1967, men outnumbered women twenty to one in American law schools. With the loss of deferments from Vietnam, reluctant law schools began admitting women to avoid plummeting enrollments. As women entered, the law resisted. Judges would not hire women. Law firms asserted a right to discriminate against women. Judges permitted discrimination by employers against pregnant women. Courts viewed sexual harassment as, one judge said, "a game played by the male superiors." Violence against women seemed to exist beyond the law’s comprehension. In this landmark book, Fred Strebeigh shows how American law advanced, far and fast. He brings together legal evidence and personal histories to portray the work of concerned women and men to advance legal rights in America. Equal combines interviews with litigators, plaintiffs, and judges, including Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Catharine MacKinnon, along with research from private archives of attorneys who took cases to the Supreme Court, to narrate battles waged against high odds and pinnacles of legal power. Equal , in the words of Professor Suzanne A. Kim of Rutgers Law School, is a book for "anyone interested in how each individual can improve our society through compassion, drive, and creativity."
As late as 1967, men outnumbered women twenty to one in American law schools. With the loss of deferments from Vietnam, reluctant law schools began admitting women to avoid plummeting enrollments. As women entered, the law resisted. Judges would not hire women. Law firms asserted a right to discriminate against women. Judges permitted discrimination by employers against pregnant women. Courts viewed sexual harassment as, one judge said, "a game played by the male superiors." Violence against women seemed to exist beyond the law’s comprehension. In this landmark book, Fred Strebeigh shows how American law advanced, far and fast. He brings together legal evidence and personal histories to portray the work of concerned women and men to advance legal rights in America. Equal combines interviews with litigators, plaintiffs, and judges, including Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Catharine MacKinnon, along with research from private archives of attorneys who took cases to the Supreme Court, to narrate battles waged against high odds and pinnacles of legal power. Equal , in the words of Professor Suzanne A. Kim of Rutgers Law School, is a book for "anyone interested in how each individual can improve our society through compassion, drive, and creativity."
594 pages, Hardcover
First published February 13, 2009
13 people are currently reading
118 people want to read
About the author
Fred Strebeigh
4 booksFred Strebeigh (b.1951) has written for The Atlantic, Smithsonian, and the New York Times Magazine. He teaches nonfiction writing at Yale University and lives in New Haven, Connecticut.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 5, 2011
This book is basically about how badass many lady lawyers and Joe Biden are.
May 30, 2009
If you ever wanted to find out why employers can't discriminate against pregnant women (this used to be legal as decided by the Supreme Court), what Ruth Bader Gisnburg did before she got on the SC, all about the Violence Against Women Act, when rape laws changed, who stood up for basic decency in the treatment of women and who didn't, and just how VERY VERY recently these amazing legal accomplishments occurred, this is the book for you.
A phenomenal read - this one is a book we are going to buy to go on our family reading shelf.
A phenomenal read - this one is a book we are going to buy to go on our family reading shelf.
April 15, 2018
Law Story
When I started to read this book, I assumed that it was written by a woman especially since the author wrote it with such reverence toward the law as intrepreted by women and for women. I t surprised me to find it was written by a man because he understands the needs of a woman and seems to know what women need.
When I started to read this book, I assumed that it was written by a woman especially since the author wrote it with such reverence toward the law as intrepreted by women and for women. I t surprised me to find it was written by a man because he understands the needs of a woman and seems to know what women need.
November 19, 2009
I really wanted to be able to give this book a higher rating because I enjoyed the first two-thirds quite a bit and it covered what I had hoped my Women's Legal History class in law school would be about. However, the book lost me when it went into minute detail on the legislative history of VAWA in the last quarter of the book and it was a struggle to finish it. A good read generally, but be prepared to slog through the end!
January 4, 2015
Brilliant, fascinating, and scrupulously detailed account of how a core group of enterprising, tireless, and brave women reshaped American law in major ways concerning its handling of women between 1960-1995.
January 25, 2010
These are the stories of the lawyers, litigants, and judges behind the cases that guaranteed women and men equal status under the law.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews